Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) remains a major challenge in medicine. The main factors involved in thrombotic events described by Virchow in 1845 are still valid today and include hypercoagulability, venous stasis and endothelial injury 1,2. Several congenital and acquired conditions, identified in recent years, have further improved our understanding of this disease as laboratorial changes have been better defined 3‐6. However, well established factors such as venous stasis and endothelial damage remain as important causes of thrombosis and require more categorical and effective preventive measures 7. Although DVT is common in hospitalized patients it is often under diagnosed. The overall incidence of DVT identified in general surgery by the 125I‐fibrinogen test is 25% of patients not submitted to prophylaxis. 7 The Incidence of venous thrombosis increases sharply with age: it is very rare in young Individuals (< 1 per 10 000 per year) but increases to Approximately 1% per year in very old age, which Indicates that aging is one of the most important risk factor for venous thrombosis 8. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of venous stasis and surgeries with DVT in a tertiary hospital.

A cross‐sectional, prospective, quasi randomized (in order of arrival), descriptive and quantitative study was performed to assess the association of venous stasis and surgery with DVT in patients at Hospital de Base, Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto from June 2007 to June 2008. Researchers scheduled visits once a week to the vascular surgery ward and identified patients under treatment for DVT confirmed by Doppler ultrasound. The patient history was investigated in particular in respect to being bedridden for clinical problems for periods longer than one week and surgery within the preceding month. These data were input on an Excel spreadsheet and statistically analyzed. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of FAMERP.

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