Summary
The object of the present investigation was to identify those who, among high-risk
patients, would “break through” low-dose heparin prophylaxis and develop thromboembolism
after major abdominal surgery.
Twenty-nine variables (clinical characteristics, pre- and postoperative coagulation
and fibrinolytic factors) from 19 patients with and 26 patients without thromboembolism
were analyzed by means of a multivariate supervised pattern recognition technique
(SIMCA).
We found no statistically significant difference between patients with and without
thromboembolism. Thus, in the studied group of high-risk patients it was not possible
to identify a predictive index for selection of individual patients liable to develop
postoperative thromboembolism despite low-dose heparin prophylaxis in major abdominal
surgery.
Keywords
Heparin prophylaxis - Major abdominal surgery - Risk factors - Multivariate analysis