Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 May 13;17(1):425.
doi: 10.4102/sajhivmed.v17i1.425. eCollection 2016.

The profile and frequency of known risk factors or comorbidities for deep vein thrombosis in an urban district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal

Damilola Awolesi  1 , Mergan Naidoo  1 , Mohammed H Cassimjee  1
Affiliations

The profile and frequency of known risk factors or comorbidities for deep vein thrombosis in an urban district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal

Damilola Awolesi et al. South Afr J HIV Med. .

Abstract

Background: Although deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a preventable disease, it increases the morbidity and mortality in hospitalised, patients, resulting in considerable economic health impact. The identification and primary prevention of risk factors using risk assessment and stratification with subsequent anti-thrombotic prophylaxis in moderate- to severe-risk categories is the most rational means of reducing morbidity and mortality.

Aim and setting: The aim of the study was to describe the profile and frequency of known risk factors or comorbidities of hospitalised medical patients with ultrasound-diagnosed DVT in an urban district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal.

Methods: A retrospective review of clinical notes of all medical patients (age ≥ 13 years) admitted to the hospital with ultrasound-diagnosed DVT between July and December 2013.

Results: The median age was 40 years (interquartile range 32-60 years) and female preponderance was 72.84%. HIV and tuberculosis emerged as the prevalent risk factors, accounting for 51.85% and 35.80%, respectively. Other risk factors observed were recent hospitalisation (34.57%), smoking (25.93%), previous DVT (19.75%) and congestive cardiac failure (18.52%).

Conclusion: DVT in our study occurred predominantly in young female patients unlike previous studies where patients were generally older. Furthermore, HIV and tuberculosis were the two most common known risk factors or comorbidities observed. Clinicians should have a heightened awareness of venous thromboembolism in patients with either condition or where both conditions occur together and appropriate thromboprophylaxis should be administered.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing the article.

References

    1. Anderson FA, Wheeler HB, Goldberg RJ, et al. A population-based perspective of the hospital incidence and case-fatality rates of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. The Worcester DVT study. Arch Intern Med. 1991;151: 933–938. - PubMed
    1. Ho WK, Hankey GJ, Eikelboom JW. The incidence of venous thromboembolism: A prospective, community-based study in Perth, Western Australia. Med J Aust. 2008;189:144–147. - PubMed
    1. Lee AD, Stephen E, Agarwal S, Premkumar P. Venous thromboembolism in India. Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg. 2009;37(4):482–485. - PubMed
    1. Luciani A, Clement O, Halimi P, et al. Catheter-related upper extremity deep venous thrombosis in cancer patients: A prospective study based on Doppler US. Radiology. 2001;220:655. - PubMed
    1. Statistics South Africa Mortality and causes of death in South Africa, 2009: Findings from death notification. 2011. [cited 2015 Sep 20]. Available from http://www.statssa.gov.za/Publications/P03093/P030932009.pdf

LinkOut - more resources