Incidence and locations of deep venous thrombosis of the lower extremity following surgeries of tibial plateau fractures: a prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the lower extremities following surgeries of tibial plateau fractures. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the prospectively collected data on patients undergoing surgeries of tibial plateau fractures between October 2014 and December 2018 was conducted. Duplex ultrasonography (DUS) was used to screen for postoperative DVT of the bilateral lower extremities. Data on demographics, comorbidities, injury, surgery, and laboratory biomarkers at admission were collected. Univariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify the independent risk factors associated with DVT. RESULTS: Among 987 patients included, 46 (4.7%) had postoperative DVT, with incidence rate of 1.0% for proximal and 3.7% for distal DVT. The average interval between operation and DVT was 8.3 days (median, 5.8 days), ranging from 2 to 42 days. DVT involved the injured extremity in 39 (84.8%) patients, both the injured and uninjured extremity in 2 patients (4.3%) and only the uninjured extremity in 5 patients (10.9%). Five risk factors were identified to be associated with postoperative DVT, including age (≥ 41 vs < 41 years) (OR 3.08; 95% CI 1.43–6.61; p = 0.004), anesthesia (general vs regional) (OR 2.08; 95% CI 1.12–3.85; p = 0.021), hyponatremia (OR 2.21; 95% CI 1.21–4.06; p = 0.010), prolonged surgical time (OR 1.04; 95% CI 1.01–1.07; p = 0.017) and elevated D-dimer level (OR 2.79; 95% CI 1.34–4.83; p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: These epidemiologic data may be helpful in individualized assessment, risk stratification, and development of targeted prevention programs.