Hindawi Publishing Corporation Thrombosis Volume 2012, Article ID 209052, 6 pages doi:10.1155/2012/209052 Research Article Actual Situation of Thromboembolic Prophylaxis in Obesity Surgery: Data of Quality Assurance in Bariatric Surgery in Germany Christine Stroh,1, 2 D. Luderer,1 R. Weiner,3 T. Horbach,4, 5 K. Ludwig,6 F. Benedix,7 Stefanie Wolff,7 C. Knoll,8 H. Lippert,2, 7 and T. Manger1, 2 1 Department of General, Abdominal and Pediatric Surgery, SRH Hospital, Straße des Friedens 122, 07548 Gera, Germany 2 Institute for Quality Assurance in Operative Medicine, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany 3 Municipal Hospital Sachsenhausen, Frankfurt/Main, Germany 4 Friedrich-Alexander University, 91054 Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany 5 Municipal Hospital, Schwabach, Germany 6 Municipal Hospital, Rostock Suedstadt, Germany 7 Otto-von-Guericke Universita¨t Magdeburg, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany 8 StatConsult, 39112 Magdeburg, Germany Correspondence should be addressed to Christine Stroh, christine.stroh@wkg.srh.de Received 18 March 2012; Revised 7 May 2012; Accepted 7 May 2012 Academic Editor: Domenico Prisco Copyright © 2012 Christine Stroh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Evidence-based data on optimal approach for prophylaxis of deep venous thrombosis (VTE) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in bariatric operations is discussed. Using antithrombotic prophylaxis weight adjusted the risk of VTE and its complications have to be balanced with the increased bleeding risk. Methods. Since 2005 the current situation for bariatric surgery has been examined by quality assurance study in Germany. As a prospective multicenter observational study, data on the type, regimen, and time course of VTE prophylaxis were documented. The incidences of clinically diagnosed VTE or PE were derived during the in-hospital course and follow up. Results. Overall, 11,835 bariatric procedures were performed between January 2005 and December 2010. Most performed procedures were 2730 gastric banding (GB); 4901 Roux-en-Y-gastric bypass (RYGBP) procedures, and 3026 sleeve gastrectomies (SG). Study collective includes 72.5% (mean BMI 48.1 kg/m2) female and 27.5% (mean BMI 50.5 kg/m2) male patients. Incidence of VTE was 0.06% and of PE 0.08%. Conclusion. VTE prophylaxis regimen depends on BMI and the type of procedure. Despite the low incidence of VTE and PE there is a lack of evidence. Therefore, prospective randomized studies are necessary to determine the optimal VTE prophylaxis for bariatric surgical patients. 1. Introduction Obesity has developed into an epidemic. Approximately 1.7 billion people are overweight, and 312 million are obese [1, 2]. In Germany in 2009, 60.1% of male and 42.9% of female population were overweight [3]. Morbid obesity is associated with increased health costs and an increased mortality risk [4, 5]. As a result of new technologies with lower risks and better long-term results, bariatric and metabolic surgeries have grown in popularity in recent years. The number of operations performed is rapidly increasing. However, bariatric surgery is associated with numerous peri- and post- operative complications. Venous thromboembolism is the most common postoperative complication. Obesity needs to be considered as one of the most serious factors predisposing patients to the development of thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. In addition, the risk for thromboembolism in metabolic surgery is high, and its detection is complicated. The guidelines of the German Society of Surgery suggest