We studied the usefulness of plasma D-dimer determination by a latex agglutination test used as a deep venous thrombosis (DVT) detection method in patients undergoing recent orthopaedic or traumatologic surgery. Asymptomatic patients with a level of D-dimer up to 1.5 micrograms/ml suffered phlebographic venous thrombosis in 49.3% of the cases. Because a predictive value of negative test of 0.77 the latex assay cannot be recommended for screening in symptomatic DVT. However, post operative measurement of cross linked fibrin derivatives in plasma may play a role in the selection of asymptomatic patients for venography.