Epidemiology and Pattern of Thromboembolism in Aseer Central Hospital, a Multispecialty Hospital in Aseer Region, Abha in Southern Saudi Arabia

Background: Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) is a clinical disorder characterized by the pathological occurrence of single or many thrombi developing mainly in the deep veins of the lower limbs and pulmonary veins but also other parts of the venous circulation, albeit less. A frequently occurring venous thrombosis is a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which is the presence of thrombus in deep veins of the lower extremity. Once this clot fragment is swept off (embolism), it moves along with the venous blood and flows to the pulmonary vessels, where it may result in a clinically significant disorder called pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE). Thrombosis occurring in the superficial veins would only cause discomfort but generally with insignificant consequences. Aim: This study aimed to assess patterns and risk factors of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among patients in the Aseer region. Methodology: A record-based descriptive analysis (retrospective) was used in this study. The clinical study targeted the patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE including PE & DVT) either admitted with the diagnosis or complicated during the hospitalization period in Aseer Central Hospital during the period from January 2010 to June 2019. Data extracted using pre-structured data collection sheet. The extracted data were patients' bio-demographic data, VTE related data, treatment received and relevant complications of treatment, and patient’s follow-up history. Results: The study included total of 207 patients with thromboembolism. The age of patients was between 15 - 100 years old with the average age being 57.3+12.9 years. Approximately 58% of the patients were female. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was recorded in 60.4% of the cases and 27.5% of them were diagnosed with pulmonary embolism (PE) while 12.1% had both PE and DVT. Exact of 59.6% of cases with PE had immobilization history for 24 to 72 hours as compared to 31.2% of DVT and 44% of patients with mixed thromboembolism. DM was recorded among 14% of PE cases and 21.6% of DVT. Warfarin with Enoxaparin was the most frequently given treatment in total (23.2%). Heparin followed by Warfarin was the second most common treatment. Conclusions and recommendation: The study revealed that VTE was commonly reported especially DVT and PE among the recorded cases and it was bilateral in a considerable number of cases. Immobilization with chronic disease and morbid obesity was noted as the most significant predictor for VTE.