New evidence suggests that lung cancer surgery patients are at higher risk of developing venous thromboembolism, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), than previously thought, with elevated risks of complications or death. When thromboemboli occur, they may be asymptomatic or attributed to post-surgical pain or complications, and may reflect both the lung cancer itself as well as compromised lung function after surgery. These incidents may also be ascribed to an inconsistent approach to prevention that currently exists among thoracic surgeons and hematologists who care for these patients. Three presentations at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery explore the problem of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after surgery for lung cancer.
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