Use of preventive measures for air travel-related venous thrombosis in professionals who attend medical conferences

Background: Lack of guidelines for prevention of air travel-related venous thrombosis may lead to excessive use of potentially dangerous precautions. Objectives: To assess the use of preventive measures for air travel-related thrombosis in professionals employed in the field of thrombosis and hemostasis and in other fields. Methods: A survey amongst delegates of the XXth ISTH Congress, the 15th ISDB Congress and the 13th Cochrane Colloquium, which all took place in Australia 2005. Results: Two thousand and eighty-nine questionnaires were completed (response 53%). Overall, 80% of the respondents had used preventive measures. Low-molecular-weight heparin and vitamin K antagonists were mostly used by ISTH delegates (10% vs. 1% at the other conferences). Medical doctors used more pharmacological prophylaxis (31%) than research fellows (11%) and non-clinical scientists (22%). Dutch (64%) and Asian respondents (67%) least used any prevention, whereas Israeli used most (94%). Subjects with risk factors for thrombosis more often used prophylaxis (90%) than those without (77%). In a multivariate analysis, conference, nationality, age, presence of risk factors and profession were determinants of prophylaxis use. Conclusion: Major differences in the use of prophylactic measures for air travel-related thrombosis stress the need for studies of interventions and clear guidelines on prevention of air travel-related venous thrombosis.