ORIGINAL ARTICLE Thromboembolism After Trauma An Analysis of 1602 Episodes From the American College of Surgeons National Trauma Data Bank

preventable causes of morbidity and mortality after injury. We hypothesized that the current clinical incidence of VTE is relatively low and that VTE risk factors could be identified. Methods: We queried the ACS National Trauma Data Bank for episodes of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and/or pulmonary em-bolism (PE). We examined demographic data, VTE risk factors, outcomes, and VTE prophylaxis measures in patients admitted to the 131 contributing trauma centers. Results: From a total of 450,375 patients, 1602 (0.36%) had a VTE (998 DVT, 522 PE, 82 both), for an incidence of 0.36%. Ninety percent of patients with VTE had 1 of the 9 risk factors commonly associated with VTE. Six risk factors found to be independently significant in multivariate logistic regression for VTE were age40 years (odds ratio OR 2.01; 95 % confidence interval CI 1.74 t