Purpose
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is generally thought to occur rarely in patients who undergo knee arthroscopy, and current practice is not to administer perioperative thromboprophylaxis. In support of this practice, postoperative screening for DVT after 2 weeks from knee arthroscopy was done in this study using ultrasonography technique to detect the DVT incidence after such procedure.
Patients and methods
This study population consisted of 50 patients, 44 males and six females, who underwent knee arthroscopy and fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: patients aged from 18 to 60 years, those with isolated meniscal injury, and those not known to be at high risk for DVT. Radiographs and MRI were done for all patients preoperatively to diagnose knee injury. The medial meniscus was injured in 39 patients and the lateral meniscus in 11 patients; all were managed arthroscopically. Full DVT screening with lower limbs venous ultrasonography was done for all patients within 2 weeks postoperatively.
Results
The mean patients’ age at the time of the operation was 27.8 years (range: 18–43 years). The right knee was affected in 22 patients and the left in 28 patients. The tourniquet was used in 43 patients. The mean time for hospital stay was 1.24 days (range: 1–3 days). Only one patient of the 50 developed asymptomatic silent DVT within the first 2 postoperative weeks.
Conclusion
The incidence of DVT after arthroscopic knee surgery of 50 patients in this study was 2%, which is not a strong prerequisite for perioperative thromboprophylaxis in patients not known to be at high risk.