Importance of preoperative ultrasound and D-dimer determination for patients with traumatic fractures / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To retrospectively analyze the importance of preoperative ultrasound and D-dimer determination for patients with traumatic fractures so as to evaluate the value of vascular color Doppler ultrasound in diagnosing of vein thrombosis and the correlation between D-dimer level and lower extremity vein thrombosis. Methods The study involved 1000 in-patients with multiple traumatic fractures, femoral fractures, tibial fractures or tibiofibular fractures admitted from March 2008 to April 2009 who were prepared for open reduction surgery. There were 568 males and 432 females, at age range of 20-90 years ( average 54.8 years). Vein D-dimer was examined in the morning on the second day after admission. Vascular color Doppler ultrasound was performed on the lower extremity one day before operation (after the swelling faded away, about 4-10 days after fracture). Results The vascular color Doppler ultrasound on the lower extremity showed vein thrombosis of the lower extremity in 64 patients (6.4%) including 26 patients with iliac- femoral vein thrombosis, 10 with popliteal-tibial vein thrombosis and 28 with gastrocnemius or soleus muscle vein thrombosis. On the second day after operation, out of 736 patients (73.6%) with D-dimer above normal (324 μg/L), 56 patients (7.6%) developed thrombosis afterwards;of 264 patients (26.4%) with normal D-dimer, eight patients (3.03%) developed thrombsis. Incidence of thrombosis in patients with D-dimer above 650 μg/L was higher than that in patients with D-dimer below 650 μg/L (P＜0. 01). Conclusions Preoperative lower extremity vein Doppler ultrasound in traumatic fracture patients can lower the risk of fatal lung thrombosis caused by existing deep vein thrombosis.D-dimer above normal level indicates tendency of thorombosis. However, normal D-dimer still have the possibility to develop thrombosis, which deserves attention.