Venous Thromboembolism in Hospitalized Patients With Surgical Breast Cancer: Risks and Outcomes

Background The Caprini risk assessment model has been validated in breast cancer surgery patients. However, its utility in our population has not been described. This study evaluated the benefits and risks of the Caprini risk stratification tool and the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the 30-day postoperative period among surgical female patients with breast cancer who were hospitalized during their treatment. Methodology This is a retrospective review of prospectively collected data of all surgical patients with histologically confirmed breast cancer who were hospitalized between January and December 2018. Caprini score, treatment information, and 30-day outcome of prophylaxis were collated and analyzed using SPSS version 26 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results A total of 167 female patients with breast cancer aged 19 to 75 years were hospitalized during the study period. All patients had invasive ductal carcinoma, and the majority (76.6%) were premenopausal. Two fatal VTE events occurred during hospitalization, giving a 30-day incidence of 1.2%. There was no adverse event from chemoprophylaxis. Conclusions VTE is rare in hospitalized surgical patients with breast cancer undergoing routine pharmacologic and mechanical prophylaxis. The Caprini tool can identify extremely low-risk patients who require no prophylaxis.