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Dept of Health

Answer

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the level of deaths from deep vein thrombosis among NHS patients. [222205] Miss Melanie Johnson: Virtually all deaths from deep vein thrombosis occur as a result of a pulmonary embolism and most pulmonary embolisms arise from deep vein thrombosis in the leg. However, the precise description of this sequence of events leading to death, as provided on the death certificate, affects whether the death is coded as pulmonary embolism or thrombosis. Therefore, a figure combining the two causes is shown in the table. Number of deaths from pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis1, persons, England and Wales, 1998-2003 2 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Calendar year Number of deaths 1998 6,992 1999 6,877 2000 7,233 2001 7,207 2002 7,099 2003 7,361 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 The cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes 415.1, 451.1, 451.2, 451.9 and 453.9 for the years 1998 to 2000 and, for the years 2001 to 2003, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes 126, 180.1, 180.2, 180.3, 180.9 and 182.9. 2 Figures are for deaths occurring in each calendar year. The Government have noted the recent report published by the Health Committee into the prevention of venous thromboembolism in hospitalised patients and will provide a full response in due course.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c742-3W; 222205

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Death Deep vein thrombosis NHS Patients

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk