Burden Of Hospital Readmissions For Venous Thromboembolism Among Patients With Cancer

Background: Cancer or history of cancer are important risk factors for hospitalized patients to develop venous thromboembolism (VTE), manifesting as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and/or pulmonary embolism (PE). Patients hospitalized for cancer are thus at risk for VTE. However, several studies show that VTE prophylaxis in these patients is challenging and underutilized, with almost 70% of patients with cancer not receiving any VTE prophylaxis as evaluated by our previous analysis. Therefore, this patient population is at risk of recurrent VTE and re-hospitalization. The clinical and economic burden of VTE-related hospital readmissions among these patients is not well understood in the real-world setting. The goal of this retrospective study was thus to analyze the frequency and associated cost of VTE-related hospital readmissions among patients with cancer in the US.