摘要
background: Acute graft thrombosis is a severe complication in vascular surgery that may require limb amputation or even cause death. Because nearly all patients undergoing vascular surgery have had previous exposure to heparin, the presence of heparin-related anti-platelet antibodies typical for heparin-associated thrombocytopenia (HAT) is one underlying possible mechanism of acute graft thrombosis. Although thrombocytopenia is a typical finding of HAT, it is not clear whether the occurrence of clinically important HAT is necessarily associated with thrombocytopenia.