Prevention of Venous Thromboembolic Events (VTE) in patients undergoing major orthopaedic surgery of the lower limbs treated up to 9 days The fondaparinux clinical program was designed to demonstrate the efficacy of fondaparinux for the prevention of venous thromboembolic events (VTE), i. e. proximal and distal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients undergoing major orthopaedic surgery of the lower limbs such as hip fracture, major knee surgery or hip replacement surgery.