Inhospital mortality among clinical and surgical inpatients recently diagnosed with venous thromboembolic disease

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the most common cause of preventable mortality in hospitalized patients, and pulmonary embolism is responsible for 5–10 % of all hospital deaths. To estimate the hospital mortality in hospitalized patients who developed VTE during hospitalization. Prospective cohort of all adult inpatients >17 years admitted to the hospital between August 2006 and August 2013, and follow-up until discharge to measure death. VTE incident cases were captured prospectively from the Institutional Registry of Thromboembolic disease in a tertiary hospital care in Buenos Aires. In hospital global mortality and fatality rate of inpatients with VTE was calculated. The cumulative incidence of VTE was 1.8 % (95 % CI 1.77–1.93 %), representing 1.32 % (95 % CI 1.23–1.41 %) in the subgroup of surgical patients and 2.1 % (95 % CI 1.9–2.2 %) in clinical inpatients. The overall hospital mortality was 2.4 % (95 % CI 2.35–2.53); being 3.95 % (95 % CI 3.78–4.12) in clinical inpatients and 1.15 % (95 % CI 1.06–1.23) in surgical patients. The death in patients who had developed VTE, represented between 4 and 7 % of hospital deaths, and it increases with age in both clinical and surgical patients. In Argentina there are few data of hospital mortality in patients with VTE. This information is useful when assessing the need for resources for prevention, diagnosis and treatment in inpatients.