Prevention of venous thromboembolism in elderly patients

Abstract

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common disease with high morbidity and mortality. The incidence and mortality of VTE are higher in elderly patients and increased level of D-dimer, a thrombosis marker is positively related with age. Therefore, the diagnostic threshold needs to be adjusted to screen VTE with D-dimer level. Elderly patients may still have VTE after implementation of anticoagulant prevention, and increasing age is a high risk factor for bleeding after anticoagulant prevention. Whether elderly patients need to be monitored for anticoagulant prevention of VTE, and the relationship between age and VTE recurrence remains to be determined. In-depth research on the prevention of VTE in elderly patients and exploration of innovative VTE prevention strategies may orient future research.

Keywords

• elderly patient|venous thromboembolism|prevention