Thromboprophylaxis in emergency surgery

Abstract

Except for hip fracture surgery, emergency surgery has been only exceptionally studied concerning thromboprophylaxis. There are, however, several reasons to believe the frequency to be fairly high and that the patient group would be in need of prophylaxis. This paper discusses various emergency situations and also gives the design for an ongoing controlled study on the effect of postoperative start of thromboprophylaxis with low molecular weight heparin in emergency abdominal surgery.