title: Epidemiological updates of venous thromboembolism in a Chinese population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was thought to be uncommon in Asians and routine thromboprophylaxis in the form of anticoagulation for surgical patients was considered to be unnecessary. The current study aims to provide a contemporary epidemiology of venous thromboembolism in a population-based scale.
  
  
  METHODS
  Information from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011 was retrieved from a centralized computer public healthcare database serving mainly an ethnic Han Chinese population of 7.1 million. The incidence, demographics, and hospital mortality rates of DVT and pulmonary embolism (PE) were obtained, and analyzed for different surgical categories.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall annual incidences of DVT, PE alone, and PE with DVT were 30.0 per 100,000 population, 8.7 per 100,000 population, and 3.0 per 100,000 population, respectively. Overall male to female ratio was 1:1.24. Venous thromboembolic disease was more common with increasing age in both sexes. Thirty days' mortality rates associated with DVT, PE alone, and PE with DVT were 9.0%, 17.4%, and 13.3% respectively. Among the patients who received 103,023 major and intermediate surgical procedures in the study period, the mean incidence of postoperative DVT, PE alone, and PE with DVT were only 0.20% (203.5 patients), 0.08% (85.5 patients), and 0.04% (40.5 patients) respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with a similar study 10 years ago, there seemed to be a general increase in incidence of DVT and PE. This study showed that postoperative thromboembolic events were not uncommon, with DVT occurring in up to 0.2% of patients and PE in 0.12% of patients in this longitudinal survey.
authors.affiliation: Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong. Electronic address: lawyuksimpson@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yuk
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Law
authors.affiliation: Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Yiu Che
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Stephen W K
authors.initials: SWK
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution; D016019:Survival Analysis; D054556:Venous Thromboembolism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D020246:Venous Thrombosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*
keywords: Han Chinese; deep vein thrombosis; epidemiology; mortality; pulmonary embolism