Women who had a blood transfusion during surgery to remove colon or rectal cancer were at a higher risk to develop a blood clot in their leg veins (VTE) according to a study of over 14,000 Maryland surgical patients. However, men did not have a similar increased risk.
VTE or venous thromboembolism can be dangerous, even fatal, if the clot travels from the legs to the lungs. Patients in the study who experienced a VTE were almost four times as likely to die and twice as likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit. They spent more time in the hospital and cost of their care was higher.
In the absence of a blood transfusion, women had no greater risk of VTE than men.
Other risk factors for VTE included an emergency admission before surgery, age 80 or older, liver disease, and low surgeon volume.
Kent R. Nilsson, MD led a team from the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore who reviewed discharge information for more than 14,000 patients in Maryland hospitals between 1994 and 2000 who had surgery to remove colorectal cancer. One percent of those patients developed a VTE.
SOURCE: Archives of Surgery, February 2007; 142:126-132.
An additional article about the study appears in Reuters Health..
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