**10. Conclusions**

VTE remains an important and preventable cause of maternal morbidity and mortality during the postpartum period [26–29]. Despite absence or robust evidence use of mechanical prophylaxis sequential compression devices is an inexpensive, safe intervention and should be used in all women undergoing

*VTE Prophylaxis in Cesarean Section DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98974*


*Adapted from [17].*

#### **Table 2.**

*Current guidelines on prophylaxis of thromboembolism after C/S.*

cesarean delivery until the woman is fully ambulatory [1, 2, 4, 17]. The decision to add pharmacologic prophylaxis depends on the presence or absence of risk factors [2–4, 15, 17]. Women with a previous personal history of deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism and women with a personal history of an inherited thrombophilia (either high-risk or low-risk), and should receive pharmacologic prophylaxis after cesarean delivery [3, 4, 27, 29]. Another risk factors like obesity


#### **Table 3.**

*SMMF summary of recommendations.*

and clinical complications (Sickle cell disease, Hypertension, COVID 19 infections) should be considered. The use of universal or near-universal pharmacological prophylaxis for low risk women undergoing cesarean delivery, cannot be recommended until further studies demonstrate that such a strategy is beneficial [14]. At present, the available VTE risk stratification tools used to decide for or against pharmacologic prophylaxis have not been validated in women undergoing cesarean delivery being a good opportunity for research and development. Individualization of care is recommended for women at very high risk for VfE and institucional safety bundles are recommended as a best practice [14, 15, 17]. In the last half-century, we have made tremendous progress in understanding the epidemiology and prevention of VTE, and it is imperative that these advances be studied and implemented in obstetric care [26].
