Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a complication of abdominoplasty with low incidence but devasting consequences. A history of COVID-19 may cause thromboembolic effects on patients, although the duration is unclear given limited follow-up information available for long and post-COVID conditions. A prior small retrospective study suggested that a history of COVID infection may increase VTE rates after lipoabdominoplasty. We aim to assess in a larger population patient risk of VTE for those with a history of COVID-19 after abdominoplasty. Methods: The TriNetX LLC. National Health Research database was queried to identify patients who underwent cosmetic abdominoplasty in the years 2017-2020 (pre-Covid pandemic) and 2020-2023 (post-Covid pandemic). In addition, post-pandemic patients were further studied by querying the data to look for those with a history of COVID versus those without. These cohorts were analyzed to calculate the incidence rate of VTE in the 30 days post operative. Results: A cohort of 3,381 patients who underwent cosmetic abdominoplasty on prophylactic anticoagulation were identified. There were total of 1,486 patients in the pre-pandemic and 1,895 patients in the post-pandemic group. In the post-pandemic group, there were 361 patients with a prior history of COVID and 1534 patients without. The rate of VTE was not significantly different in the pre (2.0%) versus post (2.1%) pandemic cohorts (p=0.91). However, in the post-pandemic cohort, there was a significant difference in VTE rates between patients with (4.2%) and without (1.8%) prior history of COVID (p= 0.01). Conclusion: Our study showed there was no significant increase in VTE incidence after abdominoplasty during the pandemic. However, patients with a history of COVID may be more susceptible to postoperative VTEs as its true long term morbid effects are yet to be fully understood. Therefore, history of COVID should be carefully considered when determining a patient’s VTE risk and warrants further study for optimal perioperative and postoperative anticoagulation strategies.
Table 1: Incidence rate of VTE status post cosmetic abdominoplasty in patients with or without history of COVID
| Patients In Cohort | VTE Outcome | Risk (p=0.01)* | |
| History of COVID | 361 | 15 | 0.042 |
| No history of COVID | 1534 | 28 | 0.018 |
| Total | 1895 | 43 | 0.023 |
