A Nurse-Led Ambulatory Care Pathway for Patients With Deep Venous Thrombosis in an Acute Teaching Hospital

This article describes the management of deep vein thrombo-sis (DVT) using an ambulatory nurse-led pathway and the compression technique using duplex ultrasound. This path-way permits the management of the “walking wounded ” as well as other patients at varying risks of having DVT and in so doing has changed the approach toward the management of this common clinical event. The success of the described pathway is attributed to the development of low molecular weight heparin and the reliability of diagnostics. Key words: deep vein thrombosis (DVT), ambulatory home care, duplex ultrasonography, low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embo-lism (PE) are considered major causes of hospital-ized deaths in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada.1 In this teaching center that serves a popula