I recall a blogger asking about venous thomboembolism (VTE) risk in MS in the distant past, and they're in luck as today there is study published on exactly this topic; albeit in Taiwan. PwMS in Taiwan between 1998-2010 versus controls were 6.87 times more likely to have a VTE (with a further increase to 11.1 times more likely if you were female) even after adjusting for age, gender and co-morbidities (i.e. other co-existing illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes).
Not surprisingly the risk of VTE increases with the length of hospital stay (associated with immobility) and reduced limb mobility, particularly in the legs resulting in venous stasis and increased risk of thrombosis. The figure below alludes to the contribution of disability to the risk of VTE.
Figure: Kaplan-Meier plot mapping the probability of being free of VTE for PwMS (dashed line) and without MS (solid line) over time.
Currently in the UK PwMS are not started on VTE prevention agents upon hospital admission for their MS alone. These lines of discussion also raise the question of what about at home? Moreover, anti-embolic stockings now are no longer routinely recommended, so this leaves conservative measures such as early and effective mobilisation, hydration and subject education before and during inpatient stay, and on discharge.