BACKGROUND: Risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), may be increased in liver cirrhosis. We conducted a single-center study to explore the epidemiology, risk factors, and in-hospital mortality of VTE in Chinese patients with liver cirrhosis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: All patients with liver cirrhosis who were consecutively admitted to our hospital between January 2011 and December 2013 were retrospectively included.

RESULTS: Of 2006 patients with liver cirrhosis included, 9 patients were diagnosed with or developed VTE during hospitalization, including 5 patients with a previous history of DVT, 1 patient with either a previous history of DVT or new onset of PE, and 3 patients with new onset of VTE (PE, n=1; DVT, n=2). Risk factors for VTE included a significantly higher proportion of hypertension and significantly higher red blood cells, hemoglobin, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), D-dimer, and Child-Pugh scores. The in-hospital mortality was significantly higher in patients with VTE than those without VTE (33.3% [3/9] versus 3.4% [67/1997], P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: VTE was observed in 0.4% of patients with liver cirrhosis during hospitalization and it significantly increased the in-hospital mortality. Elevated PT/INR aggravated the risk of VTE.

Keywords: Aged, 80 and over, China - epidemiology, Hospital Mortality, Liver Cirrhosis - mortality, Multivariate Analysis, Risk Factors, Venous Thromboembolism - mortality