Background: Although compliance with the guideline in venous thromboembolism prophylaxis have shown to improve outcomes, there is a wide gap between the guidelines and common medical practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the gap between the deep venous thromboembolism (DVT) prophylaxis and Caprini score.
Methods: This observational cross sectional study carried out in two teaching hospital. Risk categories of patients and prophylaxis used were recorded. Appropriate adherence to the guidelines was analyzed.
Results: From 296 patients, prophylaxis of venous thrombosis was used in 228 patients (77.03%). Among them 58 (23.45%) received adequate whereas 152 (66.67%) and 18 (7.89%) received inadequate and extra prophylaxis respectively. Of all the patients, 78 (26.4%) had contraindications to receive thromboprophylaxis drugs, all of whom needed mechanical prophylaxis, while only 19 (28.3%) of them received it. Adherence to guidelines were low in relation to the use (39.19%) and to the type (25.44%) of prophylaxis.
Conclusion: Although prophylaxis of VTE is generally used in risk patients, but there was a high gap between DVT prophylaxis guideline recommendations and common medical practice in our intensive care units and appropriate adherence to guidelines is less frequent.