Non-drug postoperative thrombosis prophylaxis
If one or more risk factors are present, the patient should take thrombosis prophylaxis postoperatively. Depending on how many risk factors are present and how serious they are, only non-drug treatments can be used initially. Especially young patients who have had a broken leg, for example, but are otherwise fit, usually receive non-drug postoperative thrombosis prophylaxis.
This includes, on the one hand, that the patient must drink enough to keep the blood fluid and thus counteract the development of a thrombus. In addition, the patient should try to get his legs moving again as early as possible. If the patient is not yet able to walk, physiotherapy should be carried out, since a thrombus develops mainly in the deep veins of the legs and this can be avoided by moving the legs and the resulting muscle contraction.
This leads to a faster blood flow in the veins, which in turn counteracts the formation of the thrombus. Therefore, if possible, movement is one of the best postoperative thrombosis prophylaxis. However, since this is not possible for many patients after major surgery, many patients use so-called support stockings or compression stockings.
Compression bandages can also be applied. These are extremely tight-fitting stockings which the patient can wear day and night or only at night. Because the support stockings are so extremely tight, the leg is compressed, so that the leg becomes much narrower in the support stocking because everything is compressed.
This also causes the venous blood vessels that transport the blood from the feet back to the abdomen to be constricted as well. This constriction now causes the blood to flow faster through the venous blood vessels and cannot clump together. It is important that the compression stocking builds up greater pressure in the area of the foot and lower leg than in the area of the thigh, so that the blood can flow more easily towards the abdomen.Today, the use of such support stockings is being viewed more and more critically as they hardly have any effect, especially on immobile patients, i.e. those lying in bed. Nevertheless, in most hospitals the support stockings are an extremely popular post-operative thrombosis prophylaxis although they actually make the most sense if the patient is able to move the legs that are in the support stocking at least a little, i.e. to walk at least a few steps.
