One-Third of VTE Events In the U.S. Are Fatal

Sharon Worcester

ATLANTA -- More than 900,000 people in the United States experience venous thromboembolism events each year, and a third of these events prove to be fatal, Dr. John A. Heit of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., and his colleagues reported in a poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Using community, hospital, and U.S. census data, the investigators developed an incidence-based model, which estimated that the total annual number of nonfatal venous thromboembolism (VTE) events in the United States were 613,423, which included 376,365 cases of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and 237,058 cases of pulmonary embolism (PE).

They estimated the total annual number of fatal VTE events to be 296,370, which included 2,258 cases of DVT and 294,112 cases of PE.

Only 7% of VTE-related deaths are in patients who have been diagnosed and treated.

More than a third (34%) of the deaths are a result of sudden, fatal PE, and 59% follow undiagnosed VTE.

Two-thirds of VTE events were found to occur in hospitals where safe and effective prophylaxis is available, Dr. Heit noted.

Effective VTE prophylaxis and expert consensus guidelines on the use of prophylaxis are widely available, according to the authors. Universal prophylaxis could significantly reduce VTE incidence and related deaths in this country, and its impact deserves further study, the investigators concluded.

The study was an arm of the VTE Impact Assessment Group in Europe (VITAE) study which was designed to establish the actual burden of VTE across the European Union. It was funded by Sanofi-Aventis.