Should venous doppler ultrasonography be routinely applied before lower extremity major orthopedic surgery?

• Published in: Nigerian medical journal Vol. 58; no. 1; pp. 32 - 36
• Main Authors: Göçer, Hasan, Yazici, Ali Kemal, Polat, Ahmet Veysel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nigeria Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd 01-01-2017; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd
• Subjects: Care and treatment; Doppler ultrasonography; Original; Orthopedic appliances; Venous thrombosis; Doppler ultrasonography; Deep venous thrombosis; preoperative screening
• ISSN: 0300-1652; 2229-774X
• DOI: 10.4103/0300-1652.218410

Hip-knee arthroplasty and knee arthroscopy (KA) is frequently applied in the orthopaedic surgery. The approach does not exist related with the preoperative asymptomatic deep venous thrombosis (DVT). In this study, the patients who would undergo surgery lower extremity were screened for asymptomatic DVT, using the venous Doppler ultrasonography (USG).
DVT was screened by venous Doppler USG in the patients who would undergo hip-knee arthroplasty and KA between the dates of November 2013 and September 2015. The patients were investigated regarding the age, gender, and the planned operation. The cases were separated to the following three groups: group I (<49 years), Group II (49-69 years), and Group III (≥70 years).
The study included 222 patients; of these, 174 were female and 48 were male. Group I, Group II, and Group III included 45, 115, and 62 patients, respectively. Of the six patients determined to exist with DVT, 2 (1.73%) were in Group II, and 4 (6.45%) were in Group III.
Although the differences were not found to be statistically significant, it may be useful to screen asymptomatic DVT by Doppler USG in the preoperative period in the 70-year-old male patients, and in those over 70.