Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis in Plastic Surgery Patients Undergoing Facelift

Background In 2011 the ASPS approved the for Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Task Force Report, which recommended use of the Caprini scoring system, which has been adopted for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis by most surgical societies in America. Objectives The aim of this study is to investigate the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients undergoing facelifts at our institution, who were not chemoprophylaxed based on the Caprini scoring system. Methods A retrospective chart review was conducted of patients that underwent facelift at a single institution. Patients were included if they were operated on between 2016-2021 by the lead surgeon and excluded if they received VTE prophylaxis. Descriptive statistics were conducted to analyze the collected date. Results 136 patients were isolated after chart review and no patients were found to have had DVT or VTE. The average caprine score was 5.625 and ranged from 3 to 10. There were 3 patients with evidence of postoperative hematoma (caprine score=5, 5, 7). Overall hematoma percentage was 2.21%. Conclusion Based on the average Caprini score for our patients, all should have received chemoprophylaxis for VTE. We found no VTE related events in our patients without chemoprophylaxis. This is consistent with a previous study of 1453 patients receiving a variety of cosmetic procedures without chemoprophylaxis and had no VTE related events. Our study suggests that the Caprini Scoring system might not be optimal in predicting VTE in aesthetic patients.