Fewer than 1 in 5 patients received post-discharge therapy to prevent life-threatening blood clots — venous thrombosis — after hip- or knee-replacement surgery, report Rahme and colleagues in a retrospective cohort study. Venous thrombosis is one of the leading causes of death among hospital patients. However, elderly patients have a 70% lower chance of dying within 3 months if they take an anticoagulant drug to prevent blood clots.

In a paper published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine Frits Rosendaal and colleagues from Leiden University Medical Center, Academic Medical Center Amsterdam and Nestlй Medical Services, provide the first absolute estimate of risk of venous thrombosis after air travel.

In women, hormone therapy is a risk factor for venous thrombosis, a blood clot forming deep inside the vein. Despite the fact that the disorder is rare, it increases exponentially during menopause and can be deadly. The hormone trials conducted thus far, focusing on proteins in blood coagulation, have not yet led to a risk profile, thereby precluding identification of women at risk.

Venous thrombosis (VTE), the formation of blood clots in a vein, is a major health problem for hospitalized patients in the United States. In the short term, VTE can lead to deep vein thrombosis (DVT), typically in the legs, and pulmonary embolism (PE), which occurs when a piece of the blood clot migrates into an artery of the lungs.