Review article
Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in bariatric surgery

In the paper, a systematic review concerning venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis in bariatric surgery is presented. The role of obesity as an important VTE risk factor, especially in hospitalized patients, is emphasized. The lack of randomized controlled clinical trials and very small volume of the prospectively investigated group of patients are the principal difficulties in the evaluation of an optimal and safe method of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in bariatric patients. According to the available literature, in the paper the results of the proposed prophylaxis method are presented. The frequent presence of many concomitant VTE risk factors in patients qualified for bariatric procedures is also emphasized. The authors discuss the problems related to perioperative prophylaxis administration in obese patients. The high efficacy of combined prophylaxis based on the simultaneous implementation of pharmacological and mechanical methods of prophylaxis (including intermittent pneumatic compression) is emphasized.