The cumulative venous thromboembolism incidence and risk factors in intensive care patients receiving the guideline-recommended thromboprophylaxis

Abstract

Few prospective studies have reported the cumulative incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the intensive care unit (ICU), especially for patients receiving guideline-recommended VTE prophylaxis. We aimed to design a prospective observational study to investigate the cumulative incidence and risk factors of ICU-acquired VTE for those populations. We prospectively studied 281 consecutively included patients in the ICU at a single center. All patients provided informed consent. Patients received ultrasound evaluation and were followed for VTE before ICU discharge or within 28 days of ICU stay. The type of VTE thromboprophylaxis was also recorded for all patients. Variables from univariate analyses that were associated with VTE were included in the binary logistic regression analysis to determine VTE predictors. The cumulative VTE incidence with 95% confidence interval (CI) was estimated using Kaplan–Meier methods. Patients had a median age of 60 years (range, 18–89) and an acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II score of 17 (range, 4–36). Despite all patients receiving guideline-recommended thromboprophylaxis, the cumulative incidence of VTE at 7, 14, 21, and 28 days was 4.45% (95% CI 2.55–7.71), 7.14% (95% CI 4.61–10.97), 7.53% (95% CI 4.92–11.43), and 9.55% (95% CI 6.55–13.81), respectively. Central venous catheter use (P = .002, odds ratio [OR] = 4.50), Caprini score (P = .012, OR = 1.20), and ICU length of stay (P = .006, OR = 1.08) were independent risk factors related to the incidence of VTE for patients admitted to the ICU. Our prospective observational study found that the 28-day cumulative incidence of VTE was relatively high for patients admitted to the ICU, despite the use of guideline-recommended thromboprophylaxis. Patients with femoral central venous catheter, prolonged ICU length of stay, or a high Caprini score may have an increased risk of developing VTE.