Experts warn of surgical blood clot danger

Published on Thursday 3 December 2009 21:30

THE risk of suffering a potentially fatal blood clot after surgery is higher than previously thought, experts said yesterday.

Some operations, including hip and knee replacements and surgery for cancer, make people particularly vulnerable.

A study on more than 947,000 British women revealed that people requiring an inpatient stay were 70 times more likely to be admitted to hospital with a blood clot in the first six weeks after surgery than those not having an operation.

They were also ten times more likely to be admitted if they had their operation as a day-case when compared with those not having surgery at all.

The risk was highest in the third week after an operation, said the experts, who were led by a team from the University of Oxford.

It was lower between seven and 12 weeks after surgery, but was still evident, and risks were similar for people suffering either a blood clot on the lung (pulmonary embolism) or deep vein (deep venous thrombosis).

The study, published online in the British Medical Journal, estimates that one in 140 middle-aged women undergoing surgery will be admitted with a blood clot in the 12 weeks after surgery.