Objectives: To assess Danish surgical departments' attitudes to and clinical guidelines on the use of perioperative thrombo-prophylaxis (TP).
Materials and methods: Questionnaires regarding TP were sent to Danish departments which performed major surgery in 2005. The questionnaires contained questions regarding the use of TP routinely after clinical guidelines for both elective and acute surgery, indications for the use of TP, the type of TP and the duration of the TP treatment. The results are registered descriptively. The results are compared with five previously performed surveys from 1981-2000.
Results: In the five surveys from 1981 to 2000, 85%, 90%, 92%, 95%, 93% answered the questionnaire, in the present survey 88% answered. Since the beginning of these surveys, there has been a significant increase in the use of TP following clinical guidelines from approximately 50% in 1981 to 96% of the departments performing major surgery in 2005. In acute surgery we found a significant increase in the number of departments using TP following clinical guidelines from 43% in 2000 to 81% in 2005 (p<0.01 Fishers exact test). All departments that used TP employed low molecular weight heparin. The use of prolonged TP was sporadic.
Conclusion: 30 years after the first evidence in favour of TP was published, 96% of surgical departments which perform major surgery use TP routinely based on international clinical recommendations. A large number of departments use TP in connection with acute surgery in comparison with previous surveys. A future task is more focus on the use of prolonged TP after major surgical procedures.