Prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism in surgical patients: who knows does the time, not waiting to happen!!!

n recent years we have seen an unprecedented advance in technical and professional training in surgery. There were years when the huge leap in quality of the equipment, coupled with the development of new skills and great technical ability of surgeons, improved surgery greatly in many aspects. Most notable are the clinical evaluation and preoperative examinations, surgical time, postoperative recovery, use of perioperative medications, hospitalization time and, more importantly, significant improvement in results with greatly reduced morbidity and mortality on procedures. These advances have changed greatly also on the digestive tract surgery with sophisticated techniques that improved the prognosis of operations on liver, pancreas, bowel transplants, bariatric surgery, and gastrointestinal cancer.Despite all this progress, a very important aspect has been sadly overlooked: prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients undergoing these procedures. VTE is the leading preventable cause of death in hospitalized medical and surgical patients. Its incidence is much higher than that usually seen clinically, and about 50% to 60% of cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, making it very difficult to their perception and diagnosis. In general surgery the incidence of VTE without prophylaxis varies widely depending on the type of transaction and the risk factors of the patient; it affects around 20% to 25%. In oncological and bariatric surgery the incidence increases to 30% to 35%.Pulmonary embolism occurs in approximately 650,000 people per year in the U.S., with about 200,000 deaths. About 80% of these cases are related to hospitalization and procedures. A study in 2002 showed that two out of three cases of VTE could be avoided if the recommendations for prophylaxis were followed in accordance with the existing guidelines.The literature data are quite worrying. A 2008 U.S. survey showed that only 30% of surgical patients received appropriate VTE prophylaxis. In Brazil, data from the ENDORSE study (2008)