A questionnaire designed to assess actual practice with regard to venous thromboembolism prophylaxis (VTEP) was mailed to 100 general surgeons. Although a majority (78%) of the respondents (n = 65) indicated that they used some form of VTEP, the methods used were inadequate to protect high-risk and moderate-risk patients from thromboembolic complications. Furthermore, pulmonary embolism was not perceived as a significant prob lem by most (64%) of the respondents who did not use prophylaxis.
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