• Christopher J Pannucci, Lukasz Swistun, John K MacDonald, Peter K Henke, and Benjamin S Brooke.
• *Division of Plastic Surgery, Division of Health Services Research, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT †Division of Plastic Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT ‡Department of Medicine University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada §Section of Vascular Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI ¶Division of Vascular Surgery, Division of Health Services Research, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
• Ann. Surg. 2017 Jun 1; 265 (6): 1094-1103.

ObjectiveWe performed a meta-analysis to investigate benefits and harms of chemoprophylaxis among surgical patients individually risk stratified for venous thromboembolism (VTE) using Caprini scores.Summary Of Background DataIndividualized VTE risk stratification may identify high risk surgical patients who benefit from peri-operative chemoprophylaxis.MethodsMEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL) databases were queried. Eligible studies contained data on postoperative VTE and/or bleeding events with and without chemoprophylaxis. Primary outcomes included rates of VTE and clinically relevant bleeding after surgical procedures, stratified by Caprini score. A meta-analysis was conducted using a random-effects model.ResultsAmong 13 included studies, 11 (n = 14,776) contained data for VTE events and 8 (n = 7590) contained data for clinically relevant bleeding with and without chemoprophylaxis. The majority of patients received mechanical prophylaxis. A 14-fold variation in VTE risk (from 0.7% to 10.7%) was identified among surgical patients who did not receive chemoprophylaxis, and patients at increased levels of Caprini risk were significantly more likely to have VTE. Patients with Caprini scores of 7 to 8 [odds ratio (OR) 0.60, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.37-0.97] and >8 (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.26-0.65) had significant VTE risk reduction after surgery with chemoprophylaxis. Patients with Caprini scores ≤6 comprised 75% of the overall population, and these patients did not have a significant VTE risk reduction with chemoprophylaxis. No association between postoperative bleeding risk and Caprini score was identified.ConclusionsThe benefit of peri-operative VTE chemoprophylaxis was only found among surgical patients with Caprini scores ≥7. Precision medicine using individualized VTE risk stratification helps ensure that chemoprophylaxis is used only in appropriate surgical patients and may minimize bleeding complications.

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