Frequency of deep venous thrombosis in cancer patients in a tertiary care hospital

Objective: to find out the frequency of deep venous thrombosis (dvt) and venous thromboembolism (vte) in cancer patients. material and methods: in order to find out the incidence of dvt/vte in cancer patients a prospective study was conducted in the medical oncology unit at hayatabad medical complex,peshawar from january 2010 to june 2011. results: out of 1200 total cancer admissions,35 patients were found to have venous thromboembolism. age distribution was 5-60 years. twenty one were males and 14 females. seventeen patients had solid organ tumours while 18 patients had haematological malignancies. these patients were treated with inj enoxaparin 1mg/kg/day for 5-7 days,followed by warfarin for 4-6 months or longer. conclusion: every patient with malignancy should be regularly assessed for risk of dvt/vte as part of the standard procedure for hospital attendance.