Venous thromboembolism in colorectal surgery: skip SCIP or comply?

The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) includes recommendations for mechanical and pharmacologic venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis after colorectal surgery. Compliance with these recommendations is publicly reported and included in current pay for performance plans. Presently, there is limited evidence to support compliance with these recommendations.

To determine the incidence of venous thromboembolic events in colorectal surgery patients who did or did not receive the recommended pharmacologic prophylaxis.

We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively accrued data from a single-center, tertiary care, colorectal surgery department. The main outcome measure was the occurrence of venous thromboembolic events and the need for blood transfusion after surgery.

Of 674 patients, 613(91 %) received the recommended pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis and 61 (9 %) did not. Diagnosis, patient variables, and type of surgery performed were similar in each group while operative time was increased in the compliant group (251 vs. 194 min, p < 0.05). In the compliant and noncompliant groups, the incidence of extremity deep venous thrombosis was 2.8 and 8.2 % (p = 0.04), the incidence of pulmonary embolus 1.1 and 3.3 % (p = 0.19), the incidence of portomesenteric venous thrombosis 2.6 and 4.9 % (p = 0.38), and the incidence of any VTE 5.4 and 13.1 % (p = 0.02), respectively. The use of perioperative red blood cell transfusions in the two groups was 9.1 and 14.8 %, p = 0.17. In the subgroup analysis of open cases, there were no statistical differences in the occurrence of any type or combination of VTE.

Compliance with SCIP recommendations for pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis decreased the incidence of VTE after colorectal surgery with no increase in the use of perioperative transfusion. Colorectal surgeons who elect to skip these recommendations may jeopardize both the reputational score and financial reimbursement of their hospital and may put their patients at unnecessary risk for a preventable postoperative complication.