The risk and prevalence of deep vein thrombosis on patients who are hospitalized in surgical clinics

Objective: To describe the development risk and prevalence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) on patients, who are hospitalized in surgical clinics.Method: This definitive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 750 patients at a training and research hospital between May-September 2011. The sample was consisted of 450 patients in the General Surgery Clinic, 150 patients in the Orthopedics and Traumatology Clinic, 100 patients in the Neurosurgery Clinic and 50 patients in Cardiovascular Surgery Clinic, who were selected with the method of stratified random sampling. The data were collected by using the Autar DVT Risk Identification Scale (2002) for the determination of patients? DVT risk, Identification Form of Additional Risks and DVT Prophylaxis that is Applied to the Patient and DVT Identification Criteria Form, and they were analysed in the SPSS 15.0 program.Findings: It was found that 52% of the patients were male, 21.6% were older than 71, 76.8% had a body mass index of 20-25 kg/m², 58.1% were independent to meet their needs, 12.3% had chronic heart disease and 10.7% had malignancy, 85.6% had no trauma and 10.4% frequently developed lower extremity trauma. Regarding the surgery, 53.0% of the patients were applied with abdominal, 20.1% were applied with orthopedic, 13.3% were applied with neurosurgical, 6.8% were applied with small, 4.3% were applied with a great planned surgical intervention and 2.4% were applied with thoracic surgery. A significant difference was found between the scores of DVT Risk Identification Scale during the preoperative, postoperative and pre-discharge periods, according to surgical clinics (p<0.05). The significant high correlation was found between the age and the illnnes that cause risk for patients and DVT development. DVT was encountered on one patient in the study. Additionally, while the DVT prevalence was found as 8?, the incidence was found as 1.3?.Conclusion and suggestions: Preoperative, postoperative and pre-discharge DVT risks of patients vary according to surgical clinics. It was suggested for nurses to use the DVT risk identification tool for the determination of the DVT risk during the early diagnosis period.Keywords: Deep vein thrombosis prevalence, nursing, Autar DVT Risk Identification Scale (2002)