[Prophylactic strategies for perioperative pulmonary thromboembolism in cancer patients].
BACKGROUND
Our previous reports showed that elastic stockings (ES) combined with intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) significantly decrease the incidence of perioperative pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE). This study was conducted to investigate whether ES with IPC is useful to prevent PTE in cancer patients.


METHODS
No prophylactic strategies were employed from January 1998 to December 1999 (4511 cases). ES combined with ICP apparatuses was employed from May 2000 to April 2008 (20,383 cases). Details of the methods were described in our previous reports.


RESULTS
Age, anesthesia duration and operation duration increased statistically without clinical significances after the induction of prophylactic strategies. About 90 per cent of surgical patients had malignant disease. Seven patients developed PTE without any interventions and 5 patients with treatments. The incidence of PTE decreased significantly from 15.51 persons/10,000 cases to 2.45 persons/10,000 cases. Cardiac arrest occurred in two untreated patients but in no treated patient. Intervention also significantly decreased the incidence of cardiac arrest.


CONCLUSIONS
The combination of ES and ICP seems to be useful to decrease the incidence and severity of perioperative PTE in cancer patients in Japan.
Kishi
Yoshihiko
Y
Department of Anesthesiology, Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases, Osaka 537-8511.
Funjii
Naoko
N
Hiuge
Yuki
Y
Sonoda
Shunji
S
Asakura
Yoshimi
Y
Kagawa
Kiyokazu
K
Kambara
Noriko
N
Tanigami
Hironobu
H
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D048228:Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Devices; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D053828:Stockings, Compression