( WORCESTER Massachusetts July 08 200...)International ENDORSE Study Shows That the Majority of Hospitalized,Patients Surveyed are at Risk for VTE and Many do not Receive,Recommended VTE prophylaxis,Health

WORCESTER, Massachusetts, July 08, 2007 /PRNewswire/ --

- ENDORSE Global Findings Highlight the Need to Urgently Implement Hospital-Wide Strategies to Optimize VTE Management: Systematically Assess Patient Risk for VTE and Provide Appropriate prophylaxis to Prevent VTE

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk is high among hospital patients and most of these at-risk patients are not protected with adequate prophylaxis according to data from the international ENDORSE (Epidemiologic International Day for the Evaluation of Patients at Risk for Venous Thromboembolism in the Acute Hospital Care Setting) study presented today at the XXIst International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) congress in Geneva.

VTE is a preventable disease which contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality among patients hospitalized for acute medical and surgical illnesses. Many complications and deaths due to VTE could be prevented using thromboprophylaxis as recommended by evidence based guidelines, but some studies have shown that there is a gap between evidence and practice in the hospital setting. Lack of awareness and uncertainty about the prevalence of patients at risk for VTE are among the major reasons accounting for this gap (1, 2). To date, there has been no large international study performed in hospitals selected at random around the world to evaluate VTE risk and prophylaxis practice globally.

ENDORSE collected data on more than 60,000 patients who were surveyed across 358 acute care hospitals randomly selected in 32 countries, encompassing 5 continents. All participating hospitals followed the same standard multinational protocol to survey the patients present in the wards.

The main objectives of ENDORSE were to assess the prevalence of VTE risk in the acute hospital care setting and to determine the proportion of at-risk patients who receive recommended prophylaxis using the d
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