Prevention of postoperative deep-vein thrombosis by low-dose heparin in urological surgery. A double-blind, randomised study

Abstract

The efficacy of low-dose heparin in preventing deep-vein thrombosis (D. V. T.) after urological surgery was investigated in a double-blind trial. Thromboses were detected by the 125I-labelled fibrinogen technique. The incidence of D. V. T. was 36% in the control group (25 patients) and 9% in the treated group (22 patients) (p less than 0.05). Contrary to the current opinion this form of prophylaxis was effective following open prostatectomy.