Abstract
The association of severe COVID-19 with an increased risk of VTE has resulted in specific guidelines for its prevention and management. The VTE risk appears highest in those with critical care admission. The need for post discharge thromboprophylaxis remains controversial and this is reflected in the conflicting recommendations of expert guidelines. Our local protocol provides thromboprophylaxis to COVID-19 patients during admission only. We report post-discharge VTE data from an ongoing quality improvement programme incorporating root cause analysis of hospital-associated VTE (HA-VTE). Following 1,877 hospital discharges associated with COVID-19, there were 9 episodes of HA-VTE diagnosed within 42 days, to give a post-discharge rate of 4.8 per 1000 discharges. Over 2019, following 18,159 discharges associated with a medical admission; there were 56 episodes of HA-VTE within 42 days (3.1 per 1000 discharges). The odds ratio for post-discharge HA-VTE associated with COVID-19 compared to 2019 was 1.6 (95% CI 0.77-3.1). Hospitalisation with COVID-19 does not appear to increase the risk of post-discharge HA-VTE compared to hospitalisation with other acute medical illness. Given the risk-benefit ratio of post discharge thromboprophylaxis remains uncertain, randomised controlled trials to evaluate the role of continuing thromboprophylaxis in patients with COVID-19 following hospital discharge are required.