title: Cross-sectional study of adherence to venous thromboembolism prophylaxis guidelines in hospitalized patients. The Trombo-Brit study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  DVT is the main cause of death in hospitalized patients and thromboprophylaxis is the only way to prevent these deaths. International recommendations suggested that active monitoring of DVT/PE prophylaxis can improve the efficacy in Hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a cohort study in three consecutives periods to evaluate DVT prophylaxis in 388 adults hospitalized in a General Hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  85% of the population had high risk factors for DVT. Thromboprophylaxis was in accordance with local and International guidelines (ACCP 2008) in 72.7% and 86% of the patients respectively. No significant difference could be founded between clinical and surgical patients. One every 10 patients received higher prophylaxis than suggested by guidelines and two out of ten received deficient or no prophylaxis. The worst 2 groups of patients were those with moderate/low risk of DVT and the group with a contraindication to pharmacologic prophylaxis. We observed a progressive improvement of the DVT prophylaxis in the 3 periods of evaluation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the rate of recommended thromboprophylaxis is higher than many other reports in the region we still have some areas where we need to improve. Regular audits like these are very helpful to find out what specific areas of the hospital needs some careful attention in order to have a better quality of assistance.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Clínica Médica, Hospital Británico, Perdriel 74, Buenos Aires 1280, Argentina. febottaro@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Federico Jorge
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Bottaro
authors.forename: José Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ceresetto
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Emery
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bruetman
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Emery
authors.forename: Débora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pellegrini
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pinoni
authors.forename: Gastón
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piñeiro
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: María Eugenia
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Orrico
authors.forename: Silvina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Sebastián
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prieto
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bullorsky