When patients undergo longer surgeries, the risk of venous thromboembolism increases, according to research published in JAMA Surgery.
Researchers looked at a cohort of 1,432,855 patients who underwent surgery at 315 U.S. hospitals from 2005 to 2011, looking at surgical duration and how it relates to incidences of VTE.
They found that when compared with a procedure of average duration, patients undergoing the longest procedures had a 1.27-fold increase in odds of developing VTE, while the shortest procedures had an odds ratio of 0.86.
"These findings may help inform preoperative and postoperative decision making related to surgery," the study authors concluded.