Deep venous thrombosis in elderly patients as a surgical emergency at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is a condition that occurs frequently among surgical, as well as acutely ill hospitalized medical patients, and is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. Risk factors include older age, surgery and immobilization (as with bed rest, orthopedic casts, and sitting on long flights. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to identify the frequency and factors associated with occurrence of DVT among elderly patients referred to King Abdulaziz University (KAU) Hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: The current study is a hospital based cross sectional study. The emergency, inpatients and outpatients’ departments at KAU hospital were reviewed. We studied all the referred elderly subjects during the study period. All elderly patients (540) referred to or admitted to the hospital departments and who were clinically suspected to have DVT and subjected to Doppler examination were included in the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi square test. RESULTS: Based on the results of Doppler examination, DVT was detected in 97 (18.0%) of the studied elderly population. There were no significant differences in gender between patients who developed DVT and those who were negative by Doppler examination (p=0.018). Other comorbidities as diabetes, IHD and hypertension were significantly associated with the occurrence of DVT among the participants (p=0.05, 0.05 and 0.04 respectively). Furthermore, the other investigated factors such as being bed ridden, cancer, orthopedic cast and previous DVT were not significantly associated with the development of DVT among the studied elderly patients (p=0.42, 0.16, 0.45 and 0.75 respectively). CONCLUSION: DVT has high prevalence in Jeddah; KSA. Thrombophilia screening should be regular for elderly patients with diabetes, hypertension and bed-ridden patients with recurrent DVT or patients with other risk factors. Knowing the most common risk factors and their significance in developing DVT is essential for early detection of DVT to prevent unwanted complications for elderlies.