Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) Prophylactic Team Activity to Support DVT Prevention Protocol for the Purpose of the Prophylaxis of Pulmonary Thromboembolism (PTE) and Operation.

In 2017, the Medical Accident Investigation and Support center in Japan released an analysis of acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) related mortality. This recommendation called for maintaining a "team in charge of PTE's risk assessment, prevention, diagnosis and treatment" and preventing PTE through team activities. Therefore, we recommended establishing a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prevention team. Before this recommendation, a multidisciplinary DVT prevention team was established in our hospital, with excellent outcomes. In the current study, we report the results of the DVT prevention team. Our multidisciplinary team consisted of several departments: Cardiovascular Surgery, ward nurses, medical safety managers, and clerks. The following themes were launched: 1) preparation of DVT prevention protocol; 2) preparation of DVT preventive manual; 3) regular round for evaluating DVT preventive measures; 4) staff education. The protocol's strong point was that nurses evaluated patients over 16-year-old with Wells' score for DVT on admission. We retrospectively investigated the diagnosis rate of DVT and PTE for 9 months before and after protocol operation. The diagnosis rate of DVT was significantly improved after protocol implementation (before: 0.06% vs. after: 0.56%, p=0.0017). However, no significant difference was observed in the diagnosis rate of PTE before and after the protocol execution (before: 0.03% vs. after: 0.07%, p=0.98). Our DVT prophylactic protocol improved the diagnostic rate of DVT resulting in a decrease of PTE in our hospital. (This is a translation of Jpn J Phlebol 2019; 30(3): 285-293.).