Thromboprophylaxis is of particular interest to the NHS due to the number of deaths from preventable hospital-acquired venous thrombo-embolism, considerable treatment cost and related long-term morbidities.

In compliance with current NICE guidelines, our departmental protocol for chemical thromboprophylaxis changed from aspirin to clexane.

We present a review of the use of both these chemical agents in our hip fracture patients; assessing duration of wound ooze, incidence of symptomatic PE and DVT and thrombocytopaenia.

Prospective study of surgically treated hip fractures patients on chemical thromboprophylaxis postoperatively over a 7 month period.

Of 224 patients reviewed, 110 fitted our inclusion criteria; 78 on Clexane and 32 on aspirin. Mean patient age: 82.6 years(48–100). Mean hospital stay: 30d ays(6–80). Female predominance (3:1). Mean duration of wound ooze: 6.9 days (1–24) for aspirin and 5.6 days (0–15) for clexane. Symptomatic DVTs: 1(3%) for aspirin and 3(3.8%) for clexane. Symptomatic PE: 0 for aspirin and 1(1.3%) for clexane. Thrombocytopenia: 0 for both groups. Mean duration of wound ooze for both groups was approximately 1 week. Low but significant incidence of thrombo-embolism.

Thromboembolism-deterrent-stockings were observed to be unreliable mainly due to skin problems and compliance.