Venous thromboembolism is a significant cause of potentially avoidable deaths in surgical patients. It’s important to spot who is at greater risk of clot formation long in advance to help prevent this happening.
Mrs Thrombus is an obese 61 year old lady having surgery for her cancer, currently in a bed on ITU.
- Active cancer/cancer treatment
- >60 years of age
- obesity
- critical care admission
She is wearing a red jumper with the letter C on it, because she is known to have a protein C deficiency thrombophilia, and she’s downing glass after glass of water because she feels terribly thirsty.
- known thrombophilia
- dehydration
Mrs Thrombus has in front of her a mountain of pills for her various ailments, including HRT and an oral contraceptive pill as well.
- significant medical comorbities
- HRT
- contraceptive pill
She downs all her pills and gets up to go to the toilet, when you notice her legs are covered in varicose veins. When you ask her about them, she says they are very sore and run in her family.
- varicose veins with phlebitis
- family history
unicyclemedic 