ABSTRACT
What do you understand by Virchow’s triad? How does this relate to DVT prophylaxis in the surgical patient? What regimen of DVT prophylaxis would you use for minor/major surgery? What are the risk factors for DVT? What is the definition of a thrombus? How does it differ from a clot? What is the pathophysiology of the process of thrombosis? How does heparin work? What are the indications for intravenous heparin perioperatively? How long before an operation should warfarin be stopped and which patients need perioperative anticoagulation? If a patient’s INR (international normalized ratio) is very high and the patient is on warfarin but requires emergency, life-saving surgery such as an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, how would you reverse the anticoagulation?
