Venous thromboembolism: awareness and practice of thromboprophylaxis among physicians in a tertiary-care hospital

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major public health challenge globally due to its high morbidity and mortality. The condition is often asymptomatic and under diagnosed due to lack of awareness on VTE risk factors and thromboprophylaxis. The aim of this article was to determine the level of awareness of VTE risk factors and thromboprophylaxis practices, barriers to thromboprophylaxis and strategies for improving thromboprophylaxis among physicians in University of Uyo Teaching Hospital. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted. Convenient sampling method was used to select participants for the study. There were 85 physicians, 52 from medicine and 33 from surgery department. Data was collected with self administered structured questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS version 11.5. The level of awareness of VTE risk factors and thromboprophylaxis practices among physicians was good (95.3% and 83.5% respectively). However, majority (71.8%) did not carry out VTE risk assessment of patients and only a few (18.8%) follow guidelines on VTE prophylaxis.