Effect of intermittent pneumatic compression on venous thrombosis prevention in elder patients with hip fracture deep after operation

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) in prevention of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) after orthopedic operation of hip fracture in elder patients.Methods From Aug 2007 to Dec 2010,87 patients were assigned randomly into IPC group (n =44) and control group (n =43).Patients received regular DVT prevention in the control group.In the IPC group,IPC was added to the prevention strategy same to control group.The differences of lower limb circumferences and D -dimer in blood plasma of all the patients were tested in the 3th day,7th day and 14th day after surgery.The DVT rates of both groups were accessed by color Doppler ultrasound.Results No significant difference of lower limb circumferences was found between IPC group and control group in the 3th day after the operation (P ＞0.05).The circumference differences of lower limbs in IPC group were significantly smaller than the control group in 7th day and 14th day after the surgery [(2.8698 ±0.8887) vs (3.3558 ±0.9064) cm; t =-2.871,-2.702 ;P ＜0.01].The D-dimer of patients in IPC group was significantly lower than control group in 3th day [(0.6498 ±0.2175) vs (0.7541 ±0.2380) ng/L;t =-2.133,P ＜0.05].There were 20 patients developed DVT,with 14 cases in control group and 6 cases in IPC group.The DVT rate of IPC group was significantly lower than that of control group (13.95％ vs 31.82％;x2 =3.920,P＜0.05).Conclusions This study confirmed the efficacy and safety of the addition of IPC to regular prevention in DVT prophylaxis for elder patients after surgery of hip fracture. Key words: Elder; Hip fracture; Intermittent pneumatic compression; Deep venous thrombosis