Strengths and limitations of this study
VTE, hospital-associated venous thromboembolism, hospital-associated VTE.The primary
This is the first randomised controlled trial evaluating the role of graduated compression stockings (GCS) in the prevention of hospital-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE) in short-stay surgical patients who are assessed as low risk of developing hospital-associated VTE.The primary outcome is clinically meaningful and objective in nature.The cost-effectiveness analysis will assess the economic implications of providing GCS for the prevention of VTE in low risk, short-stay surgical patients.Given this is a cluster design, it will be important to demonstrate that the populations are balanced in terms of confounding factors that is, that the clustering has been successful.