EBM NOTEBOOK
Why A-level evidence does not make it to clinicians’ A-list: the case of thromboprophylaxis in medical patients
McMaster University and St Joseph’s Healthcare; Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
A woman in her 40s is admitted to hospital for worsening scleroderma that involves the gastrointestinal tract, skin, and lungs. Although she shows some clinical improvement, 7 days into her hospitalisation a "code blue" is called after she is found to be unresponsive. Resuscitation attempts are unsuccessful. The presumed cause of death is acute pulmonary embolism. A review of her health record indicates that she was not receiving an intervention to prevent deep venous thrombosis (DVT). Could DVT prophylaxis have saved this patient’s life?
Each year, more than 6 people in every 1000 will develop DVT, and 1 will die from pulmonary embolism (PE)1—more deaths than from breast cancer, AIDS, or motor vehicle accidents. Unlike the latter conditions, DVT is relatively easy to prevent and treat, but in far too many cases, measures to prevent DVT and its embolic sequelae are overlooked.
In contemporary audits of DVT prophylaxis practices,
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Launer, J.
(2009). Death by negligence. Postgrad. Med. J.
85: 55-56
[Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
