Incremental cost of venous thromboembolism in trauma patients with contraindications to prophylactic anticoagulation: a prospective economic study

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is common in patients after major trauma. Attributable cost of VTE and whether this is related to the severity of injury have not been thoroughly investigated. We aimed to define the hospitalization costs of VTE and assess whether the costs were related to the severity of injury in this prospective economic study. Cost data of each patient enrolled in the da Vinci trial were drawn from hospital finance departments and standardized to 2020 Australian dollars (A$); and Injury Severity Score and Trauma Embolic Scoring System were used to quantify the severity of injury. Of the 223 patients who had complete financial cost data available until day-90 follow-up, 37 (16.6%) developed VTE, including upper limb (n = 3) and lower limb deep vein thrombosis (n = 25), pulmonary embolism (n = 7) and clots entrapped in a vena cava filter. The median total radiology (A$4307) as well as the hospitalization costs (A$138,526) of those who had VTE were significantly higher than those without VTE (A$1210; p < 0.001 and A$105,842; p = 0.023, respectively). The incremental hospitalization cost attributable to VTE was most apparent among those who had sustained extremely severe injuries, and estimated to be between A$43,292 (95% confidence interval [CI] 12,624-73,961, p = 0.006) and 41,680 (95%CI 7766-75,594, p = 0.016) after adjusted for Trauma Embolic Scoring System and Injury Severity Scores, respectively. VTE was common after major trauma and incurred a substantial incremental financial cost to the healthcare system, especially among those who had extremely severe injuries.