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There are three effective means of prophylaxis against venous thrombosis in high-risk patients, including general surgical and gynecologic patients. Two of these are practical--low-dose heparin and external pneumatic calf compression. The results with dextran are currently equivocal, and its use has the disadvantage of requiring intravenous injection. Although oral anticoagulants are effective in reducing deep-vein thrombosis, significant bleeding occurs, limiting their usefulness. Platelet function-suppressing drugs have not proved to be sufficiently effective for general use.
Genton et al. (Sat,) studied this question.