Efficient Diagnosis for Deep Vein Thrombosis during Perioperative Period

Abstract

It is essential to diagnose deep vein thrombosis during perioperative period especially when we introduce the prophylaxis for DVT. Serum D-dimer level has a high sensitivity to diagnose DVT, however, the specificity is low. We tried to search more efficient method to diagnose DVT just before and after operation founded on our six months research about operations underwent at four departments in our hospital; general surgery, cardiovascular surgery, orthopedic surgery and obstetrics/gynecology. We found that the D-dimer level at 2.0 μg/ml was the best value to diagnose DVT before operation with a sensitivity of 90.9%, a specificity of 50.4% and a positive likelihood ratio of 1.8. Furthermore, we found that D-dimer level at seventh post–operative day over 10.0 μg/ml combined with 3-day bed rest after operation was the best parameter to predict DVT at seventh post-operative day. It has a sensitivity of 100.0%, a specificity of 35.9% and a positive likelihood ratio of 1.6.