Thromboprophylaxis and mortality among patients who developed venous thromboembolism in seven major hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

INTRODUCTION: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) during hospitalization is a serious and potentially fatal condition. Despite its effectiveness, evidence-based thromboprophylaxis is still underutilized in many countries including Saudi Arabia. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: Our objectives were to determine how often hospital-acquired VTE patients received appropriate thromboprophylaxis, VTE-associated mortality, and the percentage of patients given anticoagulant therapy and adherence to it after discharged. METHODS: This study was conducted in seven major hospitals in Saudi Arabia. From July 1, 2009, till June 30, 2010, all recorded deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) cases were noted. Only patients with confirmed VTE diagnosis were included in the analysis. RESULTS: A total of 1241 confirmed VTE cases occurred during the 12-month period. Most (58.3%) of them were DVT only, 21.7% were PE, and 20% were both DVT and PE. 21.4% and 78.6% of confirmed VTE occurred in surgical and medical patients, respectively. Only 40.9% of VTE cases received appropriate prophylaxis (63.2% for surgical patients and 34.8% for medical patients; P < 0.001). The mortality rate was 14.3% which represented 1.6% of total hospital deaths. Mortality was 13.5% for surgical patients and 14.5% for medical patients (P > 0.05). Appropriate thromboprophylaxis was associated with 4.11% absolute risk reduction in mortality (95% confidence interval: 0.24%-7.97%). Most (89.4%) of the survived patients received anticoagulation therapy at discharge and 71.7% of them were adherent to it on follow-up. CONCLUSION: Thromboprophylaxis was underutilized in major Saudi hospitals denoting a gap between guideline and practice. This gap was more marked in medical than surgical patients. Hospital-acquired VTE was associated with significant mortality. Efforts to improve thromboprophylaxis utilization are warranted.

Antibodies against human platelet alloantigens and human leucocyte antigen class 1 in Saudi Arabian multiparous women and multi-transfused patients.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of alloimmunization against human platelet antigens (HPAs) and human leucocyte antigen class 1 (HLA1) in multiparous women and multi-transfused patients.   METHODS: This prospective study was conducted between January and August 2013, on 50 multiparous women with no history of previous blood transfusion recruited from the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic, and 50 patients, who received multiple platelet transfusions, recruited from the Hematology/Oncology Ward, King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. RESULTS: The frequency of alloimmunization among multiparous pregnant women was 76%, as follows: 16% against HLA1 only, 8% against HPAs only, 52% against both HPAs and HLA1 antigens. In multi-transfused patients, the rate of alloimmunization was 42% as follows: 2% against HLA1 only, 22% against HPAs only, 18% against both HPAs and HLA1 antigens. The frequency of alloimmunization increases with the number of pregnancies, but not with the number of platelet transfusions. CONCLUSION: Alloimmunization against HPAs and HLA1 is very common among Saudi multiparous women and multi-transfused patients, which encourages the search for the extent of the possible complications in the fetus and newborn and in multitransfused patients and how to prevent their occurrence.

Pregnancy-associated venous thromboembolism. Part I - deep vein thrombus diagnosis and treatment.

Venous thromboembolic VTE complications are leading causes of maternal mortality in the developed world. Over the past 20 years, there has been an increase in the incidence of deep venous thrombosis DVT in pregnant women, and this increase may be explained by the risk factors including older age, cesarean section, history of VTE, and presence of thrombophilia. To reduce the incidence of VTE in pregnancy and improve the outcomes, a wider understanding of the risk factors, and a better identification of women at risk of the thrombosis, with objective diagnosis and provide the optimal effective and safe treatment. Deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, considered manifestations of the same disease, are often preventable and usually treatable. Nevertheless, VTE remains a substantial problem despite the dramatic decline in pregnancy-related mortality in industrialized countries over the past century. While diagnosis and management of VTE in pregnancy are challenging, and many diagnostic tests are less accurate in pregnant than non-pregnant patients, and the available options are suboptimal. This is a review in 2 parts, in part I, we address the following questions: In pregnant women, who developed DVT; how to diagnose, and the treatment once the diagnosis is confirmed. For each of these problems, the relevant background is briefly summarized, approaches recommended, and the suggested practical and relatively safe diagnostic management approaches. Part II, we address pregnant women with pulmonary embolism, how to diagnose and treat.