Anticoagulants in obstetrics

Abstract

During pregnancy, venous thromboembolic events (VTE) (absolute VTE rates) are relatively low and occur with a frequency of approximately 0.06% or 0.5–2.2 per 1000 deliveries [1–3]. Nevertheless, VTE is one of the key causes of maternal mortality (on top of that, conditionally avoidable). It is believed that during pregnancy the risk of VTE is increased dramatically - about three to tenfold [4] compared to non-pregnant women, provided that most of the women do not have VTE before pregnancy. According to some authors [5–6], in the postpartum period the risk of VTE is increased 15– to 35-fold compared to age-matched non-pregnant women and remains elevated for 3–6 months after delivery.

Keywords

• thromboembolic events
• pregnancy
• anticoagulants