The King's Thrombosis Centre

 

The King's Thrombosis Centre forms part of the Department of Haematological Medicine, an Academic Clinical Unit providing haematology laboratory and clinical services within King's College Hospital. King's College Hospital is a major London teaching hospital offering a full range of hospital services for its inner city population of 700,000 in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham. The King's Thrombosis Centre was identified as the first NHS VTE Exemplar Centre as part of the Chief Medical Officer's initiative to promote best practice in the prevention of VTE.

 

The King's Thrombosis Centre has implemented effective risk assessment strategies for early identification of hospitalised patients at risk of thrombosis and provides a fast-track thrombosis service that treats patients who present directly to the hospital from the community. Patients are referred to a nurse-led clinic for rapid assessment of suspected DVT and are usually seen on the day of referral. Following comprehensive assessment and diagnostic testing, those with confirmed DVT are assessed for outpatient management and then transferred directly to our anticoagulation service when appropriate. Patients in whom DVT is excluded are sent home with general advice and their GP is informed of the outcome on the same day. All patients with DVT are reviewed soon after diagnosis by a Consultant Haematologist in a dedicated follow-up clinic where they are thoroughly investigated for an underlying cause of thrombosis. After stopping anticoagulation therapy, patients are screened where appropriate for thrombophilia.

 

The King's Thrombosis Centre has an active research interest in the following areas:

 

Thrombophilia

Ethnicity and thrombosis

Women's health and thrombosis

Advances in the management of DVT and PE

Myeloproliferative disorders and thrombosis

Global coagulation testing (thrombin generation, thromboelastography)

 

The laboratory provides a wide range of coagulation tests including routine coagulation studies, factor assays, testing for lupus anticoagulant and inhibitors, platelet function tests and HIT testing.

 

By providing our centre's resources (see top menu), by hosting the VTE Exemplar Centre website (see links from the home page), and by presenting quality materials from other thrombosis centres of good practice, we hope to engage with you to create the principal resource for thrombosis management in the UK. Please contact us and join in this exciting initiative.