Blood Clots in Plastic Surgery Patients

DVT risk Caprini Score

Important article on Deep Venous Thrombosis (Blood Clots) Risk in Plastic Surgery Patients, from The Journal of The American College of Surgeons

Validation of the Caprini Risk Assessment Model (for blood clots) in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Patients

Authors: Pannucci, Bailey,  George Dreszer, et al.
JACS, January 2011 212(1): 105-112.

The authors of this article were a consortium of doctors from five differenct tertiary care centers. They set out to examine the venous thromboembolism rate in plastic surgery patients. Specifically they looked at the incidence of VTE (blood clots in the legs and lungs) in patients that received no chemoprophylaxis, and also evaluated the Caprini Risk Assessment Model in plastic surgery patients. This was a medical record review study over a three year period to determine patients with symptomatic deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolus within the first 60 post-operative days. They included patients with a Caprini score of 3 or higher, who underwent general anesthesia and were admitted to the hospital after surgery.

What did they find?

1. The overall incidence of VTE was 1.69%
2. 11.3% of patients with a Caprini score of >8 had a VTE event
3. Patients with Caprini score of >8 were significantly more likely to develop VTE versus patients with a score of 3-4, 5-6 or 7-8.
4. For patients with Caprini score >8, VTE risk was not limited to the immediate post-operative period.