Venous thromboembolism (VTE), a dangerous complication of surgery, is 50% more likely to occur in current COVID-19 patients and nearly twice as likely in those with recent infection, according to an international study yesterday in Anaesthesia.The researchers also found that this type of blood clot, the top cause of preventable death in hospitalized patients, poses a fivefold increased risk of death in the first 30 days after surgery relative to patients without VTE (pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis).The prospective cohort study, conducted by the GlobalSurg-COVIDSurg Collaborative, involved 128,013 adult patients undergoing surgery at 1,630 hospitals in 115 countries.