Half of bedridden patients at home developed a pulmonary embolism

A study of the RIETE group shows that there are more generated cases of venous thromboembolic disease (VTE) in people immobilized at home than at hospital.

Authors of the article, published in the magazine European Respiratory Journal, evaluated the situation of 9.120 patients who had developed a deep venous thrombosis or a pulmonary embolism after spending, at least, four days immobilized. 65% (5.960 people) was immobilized at home, 27% (2.429 people) at hospital and 8% (731 people) in a long-term stay centre.

Half of the immobilized patients at their home developed a pulmonary embolism and, among them, 1,86% (111 cases) died. The other half suffered a deep venous thrombosis in one limb. Only one out of ten immobilized patients at home had received some kind of drug in order to avoid VTE.

Among patients immobilized at home, 38% had an acute medical illness, like an infection, an arthropathy, a cancer, or a respiratory or heart disease, 28% had recent trauma, 25% chronic immobility and 9% had other reasons.

One out of four patients immobilized due to a trauma had received prophylaxis. This situation decreases until 1 out of 16 in patients with an acute disease (infection, arthropathy, respiratory or heart failure). However, VTE was even more severe after a disease than after a traumatism.

RIETE group is one of the main projects of the FUENTE foundation. It is the greatest database of patients with VTE. It currently has clinical information of more than 50.000 patients of 214 hospitals in 24 countries.