Thromboprophylaxis in Urological and Andrological Surgery (Review article)

Abstract

Last decades urologist started to performed big amount of complicated oncological operation with substantial risk of both venous thromboembolism (VTE) and bleeding. Prophylaxis of VTE remains a vital problem, as it is potentially fatal and is associated with significant morbidity. Prophylaxis of this complication is not clearly defined and is mainly based on information from other surgical specialties (like orthopedic or general surgery). Scientific publications dedicated VTE prophylaxis in field of urology were reported only in the last decade. Most studies showed that pharmacological prophylaxis decreases the relative risk of VTE in surgical patients by approximately 50%, but with an increase in the relative risk of postoperative major bleeding of 50%. Main models for evaluation of different VTE risk factors were analyzed. The most important risk factors for VTE are age of 75 or more, body mass index 35 or more, prior VTE or VTE in 1st degree relative. As for urological procedure, deep venous thrombosis rates of 0.2–7.8% and pulmonary embolism of 0.2–7% have been reported. It was shown that recommendations for VTE prophylaxis varies in different guidelines and their summary for most popular operations were described. Generally, most recommendations state that low-risk procedures need no prophylaxis or solely mechanical prophylaxis. Moderate-risk categories can either have mechanical or pharmacological prophylaxis. The high-risk category should have both mechanical and pharmacological prophylaxis, and extended prophylaxis should be considered. Despite massive evidences about risk of VTE among different types of surgical patients, real clinical practice doesn’t show the strict adherence to VTE prophylaxis recommendations.