Current concepts review: venous thromboembolic disease in foot and ankle surgery.

Venous thromboembolic disease (VTED) can be fatal, particularly in orthopaedic surgical patients.14,15 Clinicians and researchers continue to struggle to define, from a riskbenefit perspective, which subset of foot and ankle patients would benefit from prophylaxis and which treatment is appropriate for a given patient. Efforts have focused on preventing the most common and most dangerous sequelae of VTED: proximal and distal deep venous thrombosis (DVT), post-thrombotic syndrome, pulmonary hypertension, and particularly the potentially fatal pulmonary embolism (PE).55 This current concepts review examines the pertinent literature that identifies the pathophysiology and treatment issues associated with venous thromboembolic disease in foot and ankle surgery.