In-hospital Venous Thromboembolism Research Articles

(1017) - High Incidence of In-Hospital Venous Thromboembolism Early After Lung Transplantation Despite Thromboprophylaxis

(1017) - High Incidence of In-Hospital Venous Thromboembolism Early After Lung Transplantation Despite Thromboprophylaxis

Risk Factors for Venous Thromboembolism and Eventual Amputation in Traumatic Femoral and Iliac Vein Injuries: A Trauma Quality Improvement Program Analysis.

Iliac and femoral venous injuries represent a challenging dilemma in trauma surgery with mixed results. Venous restoration of outflow (via repair or bypass) has been previously identified as having higher rates of VTE (venous thromboembolism) compared to ligation. We hypothesized that rates of VTE and eventual amputation were similar whether restoration of venous outflow vs ligation was performed at initial operation. Patients in the 2019-2021 National Trauma Data Bank with iliac and femoral vein injuries were abstracted and analyzed. The primary outcomes of interest were in-hospital lower extremity amputation and VTE. A total of 2642 patients with operatively managed iliac and femoral vein injuries were identified VTE was found in 10.8% of patients. Multivariable logistic regression was performed and identified bowel injury, higher ISS, older age, open repair, and longer time to VTE prophylaxis initiation as independent predictors of VTE. Amputation was required in 4.2% of patients. Multivariable logistic regression identified arterial or nerve injury, femur or tibia fracture, venous ligation, percutaneous intervention, fasciotomy, bowel injury, and higher ISS as independent factors of amputation. Venous restoration was not an independent predictor of VTE. Venous ligation on index operation was the only modifiable independent predictor of amputation identified on regression analysis.

Real-world comparative effectiveness of dalteparin and enoxaparin for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a preventable cause of significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients world-wide. In Australia, the low-molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) enoxaparin or dalteparin are usually used as first-line prophylaxis for VTE, though there is uncertainty whether dalteparin has the same effectiveness as enoxaparin in real-world settings. This is relevant because dalteparin is less renally cleared and may be more cost effective than enoxaparin. The aim of this study was to explore VTE event incidence in a general cohort of hospitalized adult inpatients who were prescribed enoxaparin or dalteparin for VTE prophylaxis. A retrospective observational study was conducted at a quaternary hospital in Brisbane, Australia, of patients who had experienced a hospital-acquired VTE from 1 September 2021 to 1 March 2023. Patients were identified from routinely collected data following an in-hospital VTE event, and further data was retrieved retrospectively from the integrated electronic Medical Record (ieMR). Incidence and type of VTE events, LMWH-prescribing patterns, and risk factors were assessed. The incidence of VTE events were similar across the dalteparin and enoxaparin cohorts (42.1 events/10 000 patients vs. 34.4 events/10 000 patients, respectively), although patients prescribed enoxaparin had a higher number of risk factors, particularly obesity and active cancer. Our research indicates comparable incidence of VTE in patients prescribed dalteparin compared with enoxaparin in an Australian hospital general cohort of adult inpatients. Dalteparin may be as effective as enoxaparin for VTE prophylaxis in a real-world cohort of patients, and as such dalteparin may be considered a suitable alternative to enoxaparin for VTE prophylaxis. Further research including large randomized controlled trials are required to confirm these results.

Increasing the Rate of Venous Thromboembolism Chemoprophylaxis Administration Using the Electronic Medical Record.

Introduction: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains a leading cause of preventable harm among hospitalized patients. Pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis reduces the rate of in-hospital VTE by 60%, but medication administration is often missed for various reasons. Electronic medical record (EMR) prompts may be a useful tool to decrease withholding of critical VTE chemoprophylaxis medications. Methods: In August 2021, an EMR prompt was implemented at a tertiary referral academic medical center mandating nursing staff to contact a provider for approval before withholding VTE chemoprophylaxis. A pre-intervention group from August 2020 to August 2021 was compared to a post-intervention group from August 2021 to August 2022. Rates of VTE chemoprophylaxis withholding were compared between the groups with a P < .01 considered significant. Results: A total of 16,395 patients prescribed VTE chemoprophylaxis were reviewed, with 13,395 (81.7%) receiving low molecular weight heparin. Of the 16,395 patients included, 10,701 (65.3%) were medical and 5694 (34.7%) were surgical. Patients in the pre-intervention cohort (n = 8803) and post-intervention cohort (n = 7592) were similar in hospital length of stay and duration of DVT prophylaxis. In the post-intervention group, the frequency of surgical patients with at least one missed dose had increased by 4.2% (P = .002), with the trauma and acute care surgery (TACS) show an increase of 6.6% (P < .001). However, the frequency of medical patients and non-TACS patients with missed doses decreased by 3.1% (P = .002) and 1.0% (<.001), respectively. Conclusions: EMR prompts appear to be a low-cost intervention that increases the rate of VTE prophylaxis administration among medical and elective surgery patients.

Effect of Pharmacoprophylaxis on Postoperative Outcomes in Adult Elective Colorectal Surgery: A Multi-Center Retrospective Cohort Study within an Enhanced Recovery after Surgery Framework.

The application of enhanced recovery after surgery principles decreases postoperative complications (POCs), length of stay (LOS), and readmissions. Pharmacoprophylaxis decreases morbidity, but the effect of specific regimens on clinical outcomes is unclear. Records of 476 randomly selected adult patients who underwent elective colorectal surgeries (ECRS) at 10 US hospitals were abstracted. Primary outcomes were surgical site infection (SSI), venous thromboembolism (VTE), postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), pain, and ileus rates. Secondary outcomes included LOS and 7- and 30-day readmission rates. POC rates were SSI (3.4%), VTE (1.5%), PONV (47.9%), pain (58.1%), and ileus (16.1%). Cefazolin 2 g/metronidazole 500 mg and ertapenem 1 g were associated with the shortest LOS; cefotetan 2 g and cefoxitin 2 g with the longest LOS. No SSI occurred with ertapenem and cefotetan. More Caucasians than Blacks received oral antibiotics before intravenous antibiotics without impact. Enoxaparin 40 mg subcutaneously daily was the most common inpatient and discharge VTE prophylaxis. All in-hospital VTEs occurred with unfractionated heparin. Most received rescue rather than around-the-clock antiemetics. Scopolamine patches, spinal opioids, and IV lidocaine continuous infusion were associated with lower PONV. Transversus abdominis plane block with long-acting local anesthetics, celecoxib, non-anesthetic ketamine bolus, ketorolac IV, lidocaine IV, and pregabalin were associated with lower in-hospital pain severity rates. Gabapentinoids and alvimopan were associated with lower ileus rates. Acetaminophen, alvimopan, famotidine, and lidocaine patches were associated with shorter LOS. Significant differences in pharmacotherapy regimens that may improve primary and secondary outcomes in ECRS were identified. In adult ECRS, cefotetan or ertapenem may be better regimens for preventing in-hospital SSI, while ertapenem or C/M may lead to shorter LOS. The value of OA to prevent SSI was not demonstrated. Inpatient enoxaparin, compared to UFH, may reduce VTE rates with a similar LOS. A minority of patients had a documented PONV risk assessment, and a majority used as-needed rather than around-the-clock strategies. Preoperative scopolamine patches continued postoperatively may lower PONV and PDNV severity and shorter LOS. Alvimopan may reduce ileus and shorten LOS. Anesthesia that includes TAP block, ketorolac IV, and pregabalin use may lead to reduced pain rates. Acetaminophen, alvimopan, famotidine, and lidocaine patches may shorten LOS. Given the challenges of pain management and the incidence of PONV/PDNV found in this study, additional studies should be conducted to determine optimal opioid-free anesthesia and the benefit of newer antiemetics on patient outcomes. Moreover, future research should identify latent pharmacotherapy variables that impact patient outcomes, correlate pertinent laboratory results, and examine the impact of order or care sets used for ECRS at study hospitals.

Underestimation of Venous Thromboembolism Risk: A Common Health Care Quality Deficit

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a complication of hospitalization but not all patients are at high risk. VTE risk assessment models have been developed to identify patients whose risk is sufficient to warrant pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis. To ensure all patients are risk assessed upon admission, we implemented a mandatory risk assessment tool embedded in admission order sets in our electronic health record (EHR) system. We hypothesized that the accuracy of these risk assessments was variable. We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients discharged from the Johns Hopkins Hospital medicine service between January 1 st-December 31 st 2019. The cohort consisted of consecutive patients classified into normal, intermediate or low mobility groups using the Johns Hopkins Highest Level of Mobility score. Using a standardized chart review algorithm, elements of the Padua and Improve risk scores were determined using the admission note and the JH-HLM scores for mobility assessment. We report the results of the Padua score comparison. Provider risk assessments, VTE prophylaxis orders, symptomatic VTE, major bleeding (ISTH criteria) and deaths were determined by chart review. We measured concordance between provider risk factors identified and those identified on retrospective chart review. Statistical analyses were done using Chi-squared or Fisher's exact test and were performed using Stata v.18. The cohort consist of 2992 patients with a median age of 58 (Interquartile range (IQR) 45-70). Characteristics of the cohort are in Table 1. The median provider Padua score was 1 (IQR 0,3) compared with 2 (IQR 1,5) for chart review. Providers identified 2480 patients (82.9%) as being low risk compared with 1882 (62.9%) upon chart review (P&amp;lt;0.001). Differences in risk factor assessments are presented in Figure 1. Concordance rates between providers and chart review were high (93.6%-99.6%) for all risk factors except obesity (87.5%), heart failure (76.4%), reduced mobility (72.5%) and acute infection (66.1%).(Figure 1) Thirty-six VTE (27 DVT, 9 PE; 1.2%) occurred during the hospital stay and sixty-one (44 DVT;17 PE; 2.2%) within 3 months. Among patients who suffered an in-hospital VTE, providers assessed 29 (80.6%) as low risk compared with 13 (36.1%) by chart review. Fourteen patients (48.3%) were not prescribed prophylaxis. Forty-seven of 61 patients (77.0%) who developed VTE within 3 months were classified as low risk by providers compared with 26 (42.6%) among chart reviewers. Twenty-five (41.0%) were not prescribed prophylaxis. 727 of 2480 (29.3%) patients risk assessed as low risk by providers were assessed as being at high risk upon chart review. 707 of 2480 (28.5%) low risk patients were not prescribed prophylaxis. 157 of these 707 (22.2%) would have been prescribed prophylaxis based upon chart review. Among these 157 patients, 7 VTE occurred during the hospital stay and 11 events occurred within 3 months. Major bleeding occurred during prophylaxis in 4 patients (0.17%). Underestimation of VTE risk is common in hospitalized medically-ill patients. Development of improved EHR VTE risk assessment tools that assist the provider in identifying patient risk factors could improve VTE prevention and reduce hospital-associated VTE.

ASO Visual Abstract: In-Hospital Venous Thromboembolism and Pulmonary Embolism After Major Urological Cancer Surgery

ASO Visual Abstract: In-Hospital Venous Thromboembolism and Pulmonary Embolism After Major Urological Cancer Surgery

In-Hospital Venous Thromboembolism and Pulmonary Embolism After Major Urologic Cancer Surgery

BackgroundThis study aimed to test for temporal trends of in-hospital venous thromboembolism (VTE) and pulmonary embolism (PE) after major urologic cancer surgery (MUCS).MethodsIn the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database (2010–2019), this study identified non-metastatic radical cystectomy (RC), radical prostatectomy (RP), radical nephrectomy (RN), and partial nephrectomy (PN) patients. Temporal trends of VTE and PE and multivariable logistic regression analyses (MLR) addressing VTE or PE, and mortality with VTE or PE were performed.ResultsOf 196,915 patients, 1180 (1.0%) exhibited VTE and 583 (0.3%) exhibited PE. The VTE rates increased from 0.6 to 0.7% (estimated annual percentage change [EAPC] + 4.0%; p = 0.01). Conversely, the PE rates decreased from 0.4 to 0.2% (EAPC − 4.5%; p = 0.01). No difference was observed in mortality with VTE (EAPC − 2.1%; p = 0.7) or with PE (EAPC − 1.2%; p = 0.8). In MLR relative to RP, RC (odds ratio [OR] 5.1), RN (OR 4.5), and PN (OR 3.6) were associated with higher VTE risk (all p < 0.001). Similarly in MLR relative to RP, RC (OR 4.6), RN (OR 3.3), and PN (OR 3.9) were associated with higher PE risk (all p < 0.001). In MLR, the risk of mortality was higher when VTE or PE was present in RC (VTE: OR 3.7, PE: OR 4.8; both p < 0.001) and RN (VTE: OR 5.2, PE: OR 8.3; both p < 0.001).ConclusionsRC, RN, and PN predisposes to a higher VTE and PE rates than RP. Moreover, among RC and RN patients with either VTE or PE, mortality is substantially higher than among their VTE or PE-free counterparts.

Effectiveness, safety, and costs of thromboprophylaxis with enoxaparin or unfractionated heparin in inpatients with obesity.

Obesity is a frequent and significant risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE) among hospitalized adults. Pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis can help prevent VTE, but real-world effectiveness, safety, and costs among inpatients with obesity are unknown. This study aims to compare clinical and economic outcomes among adult medical inpatients with obesity who received thromboprophylaxis with enoxaparin or unfractionated heparin (UFH). A retrospective cohort study was performed using the PINC AI™ Healthcare Database, which covers more than 850 hospitals in the United States. Patients included were ≥18 years old, had a primary or secondary discharge diagnosis of obesity [International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 diagnosis codes 278.01, 278.02, and 278.03; ICD-10 diagnosis codes E66.0x, E66.1, E66.2, E66.8, and E66.9], received ≥1 thromboprophylactic dose of enoxaparin (≤40 mg/day) or UFH (≤15,000 IU/day) during the index hospitalization, stayed ≥6 days in the hospital, and were discharged between 01 January 2010, and 30 September 2016. We excluded surgical patients, patients with pre-existing VTE, and those who received higher (treatment-level) doses or multiple types of anticoagulants. Multivariable regression models were constructed to compare enoxaparin with UFH based on the incidence of VTE, pulmonary embolism (PE)---------related mortality, overall in-hospital mortality, major bleeding, treatment costs, and total hospitalization costs during the index hospitalization and the 90 days after index discharge (readmission period). Among 67,193 inpatients who met the selection criteria, 44,367 (66%) and 22,826 (34%) received enoxaparin and UFH, respectively, during their index hospitalization. Demographic, visit-related, clinical, and hospital characteristics differed significantly between groups. Enoxaparin during index hospitalization was associated with 29%, 73%, 30%, and 39% decreases in the adjusted odds of VTE, PE-related mortality, in-hospital mortality, and major bleeding, respectively, compared with UFH (all p < 0.002). Compared with UFH, enoxaparin was associated with significantly lower total hospitalization costs during the index hospitalization and readmission periods. Among adult inpatients with obesity, primary thromboprophylaxis with enoxaparin compared with UFH was associated with significantly lower risks of in-hospital VTE, major bleeding, PE-related mortality, overall in-hospital mortality, and hospitalization costs.

Efficacy and safety of fondaparinux in preventing venous thromboembolism in Chinese cancer patients: a single-arm, multicenter, retrospective study.

Fondaparinux is a synthetic anticoagulant for the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE), and its administration in Chinese cancer patients is rarely reported. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of fondaparinux in preventing VTE in Chinese cancer patients. A total of 224 cancer patients who received fondaparinux treatment were reviewed in this single-arm, multicenter, retrospective study. Meanwhile, VTE, bleeding, death, and adverse events of those patients in the hospital and at 1 month after treatment (M1) were retrieved, respectively. The in-hospital VTE rate was 0.45% and there was no (0.00%) VTE occurrence at M1. The in-hospital bleeding rate was 2.68%, among which the major bleeding rate was 2.23% and the minor bleeding rate was 0.45%. Moreover, the bleeding rate at M1 was 0.90%, among which both the major and minor bleeding rates were 0.45%. The in-hospital death rate was 0.45% and the death rate at M1 was 0.90%. Furthermore, the total rate of adverse events was 14.73%, including nausea and vomiting (3.13%), gastrointestinal reactions (2.23%), and reduced white blood cells (1.34%). Fondaparinux could effectively prevent VTE with low bleeding risk and acceptable tolerance in cancer patients.

Natural Language Processing in a Clinical Decision Support System for the Identification of Venous Thromboembolism: Algorithm Development and Validation

It remains unknown whether capturing data from electronic health records (EHRs) using natural language processing (NLP) can improve venous thromboembolism (VTE) detection in different clinical settings. The aim of this study was to validate the NLP algorithm in a clinical decision support system for VTE risk assessment and integrated care (DeVTEcare) to identify VTEs from EHRs. All inpatients aged ≥18 years in the Sixth Medical Center of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital from January 1 to December 31, 2021, were included as the validation cohort. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR+ and LR-, respectively), area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), and F1-scores along with their 95% CIs were used to analyze the performance of the NLP tool, with manual review of medical records as the reference standard for detecting deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). The primary end point was the performance of the NLP approach embedded into the EHR for VTE identification. The secondary end points were the performances to identify VTE among different hospital departments with different VTE risks. Subgroup analyses were performed among age, sex, and the study season. Among 30,152 patients (median age 56 [IQR 41-67] years; 14,247/30,152, 47.3% females), the prevalence of VTE, PE, and DVT was 2.1% (626/30,152), 0.6% (177/30,152), and 1.8% (532/30,152), respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, LR+, LR-, AUC, and F1-score of NLP-facilitated VTE detection were 89.9% (95% CI 87.3%-92.2%), 99.8% (95% CI 99.8%-99.9%), 483 (95% CI 370-629), 0.10 (95% CI 0.08-0.13), 0.95 (95% CI 0.94-0.96), and 0.90 (95% CI 0.90-0.91), respectively. Among departments of surgery, internal medicine, and intensive care units, the highest specificity (100% vs 99.7% vs 98.8%, respectively), LR+ (3202 vs 321 vs 77, respectively), and F1-score (0.95 vs 0.89 vs 0.92, respectively) were in the surgery department (all P<.001). Among low, intermediate, and high VTE risks in hospital departments, the low-risk department had the highest AUC (1.00 vs 0.94 vs 0.96, respectively) and F1-score (0.97 vs 0.90 vs 0.90, respectively) as well as the lowest LR- (0.00 vs 0.13 vs 0.08, respectively) (DeLong test for AUC; all P<.001). Subgroup analysis of the age, sex, and season demonstrated consistently good performance of VTE detection with >87% sensitivity and specificity and >89% AUC and F1-score. The NLP algorithm performed better among patients aged ≤65 years than among those aged >65 years (F1-score 0.93 vs 0.89, respectively; P<.001). The NLP algorithm in our DeVTEcare identified VTE well across different clinical settings, especially in patients in surgery units, departments with low-risk VTE, and patients aged ≤65 years. This algorithm can help to inform accurate in-hospital VTE rates and enhance risk-classified VTE integrated care in future research.

Outcome of pharmacological thromboprophylaxis in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis - a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Portal hypertension in cirrhosis brings about a complex interplay in the risks of bleeding and thrombosis. It is unclear whether hospitalized patients with cirrhosis need pharmacological prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism (VTE), as it may increase the risk of bleeding. We aimed to compare the outcome of hospitalized patients with cirrhosis with and without pharmacological thromboprophylaxis. A comprehensive search of three databases was conducted from inception to August 2022 for studies comparing the outcome of hospitalized patients with cirrhosis with and without pharmacological prophylaxis for VTE. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for the outcomes of VTE or bleeding. Overall, 12 studies were included in the final analysis. The pooled incidence of VTE in patients with and without thromboprophylaxis was 1.9% (95% CI: 0.8-2.9) and 1.9% (95% CI: 0.9-2.9), respectively. The odds of VTE were comparable between the groups with OR 1.11 (95% CI: 0.76-1.62). The pooled incidence of bleeding events in patients with and without thromboprophylaxis was 6.7% (95% CI: 3.6-9.8) and 10.4% (95% CI: 6.6-14.1), respectively. There was no significant difference in the odds of overall bleeding (OR 0.68; 95% CI: 0.30-1.52) or major bleeding (OR 1.18; 95% CI: 0.55-2.56) between the groups. There was no significant difference in the relative effects on sensitivity analysis. The present analysis could not demonstrate the benefit of pharmacological thromboprophylaxis in reducing in-hospital VTE in patients with cirrhosis. Future studies are required to assess the role of risk prediction models in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis.

Occurrence rates and risk factors of in-hospital venous thromboembolism, major bleeding, and death in patients receiving fondaparinux after orthopedic surgery or trauma surgery

AimFondaparinux is a synthetic anticoagulant that inhibits thrombosis by suppressing factor Xa. The efficacy of fondaparinux for orthopedic surgeries has been revealed by several foreign studies; however, relevant evidence in Chinese patients is lacking. This study intended to investigate the occurrence rate and risk factors of in-hospital venous thromboembolism (VTE), major bleeding, and death in patients receiving fondaparinux after orthopedic surgery or trauma surgery.MethodsTotally, 1258 patients who received fondaparinux after orthopedic surgery or trauma surgery were retrospectively enrolled. Meanwhile, in-hospital VTE, major bleeding, and death were obtained for assessment. Besides, adverse events were recorded.ResultsThe occurrence rates of in-hospital VTE, major bleeding, and death were 2.5%, 21.8%, and 0.0%, respectively. The multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that only age (> 60 years vs. ≤ 60 years) (odd ratios (OR) = 3.380, P = 0.013) was independently correlated with increased risk of in-hospital VTE. Additionally, osteoarthritis diagnosis (OR = 3.826, P < 0.001), femoral head necrosis diagnosis (OR = 1.809, P = 0.034), hip replacement (vs. internal fracture fixation) (OR = 2.199, P = 0.007), knee replacement (vs. internal fracture fixation) (OR = 2.781, P = 0.002), and serum creatinine (abnormal vs. normal) (OR = 1.677, P = 0.012) were independently linked to a higher risk of in-hospital major bleeding. Moreover, the common adverse events included pain (56.6%), wound bleeding (23.0%), increased drainage (5.2%), etc.ConclusionFondaparinux realizes low occurrence rates of in-hospital VTE and major bleeding with tolerable adverse events in patients receiving orthopedic surgery or trauma surgery.

Machine Learning to Dynamically Predict In-Hospital Venous Thromboembolism After Inguinal Hernia Surgery: Results From the CHAT-1 Study.

The accuracy of current prediction tools for venous thromboembolism (VTE) events following hernia surgery remains insufficient for individualized patient management strategies. To address this issue, we have developed a machine learning (ML)-based model to dynamically predict in-hospital VTE in Chinese patients after hernia surgery. ML models for the prediction of postoperative VTE were trained on a cohort of 11 305 adult patients with hernia from the CHAT-1 trial, which included patients across 58 institutions in China. In data processing, data imputation was conducted using random forest (RF) algorithm, and balanced sampling was done by adaptive synthetic sampling algorithm. Data were split into a training cohort (80%) and internal validation cohort (20%) prior to oversampling. Clinical features available pre-operatively and postoperatively were separately selected using the Sequence Forward Selection algorithm. Nine-candidate ML models were applied to the pre-operative and combined datasets, and their performance was evaluated using various metrics, including area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Model interpretations were generated using importance scores, which were calculated by transforming model features into scaled variables and representing them in radar plots. The modeling cohort included 2856 patients, divided into 2536 cases for derivation and 320 cases for validation. Eleven pre-operative variables and 15 combined variables were explored as predictors related to in-hospital VTE. Acceptable-performing models for pre-operative data had an AUROC ≥ 0.60, including logistic regression, support vector machine with linear kernel (SVM_Linear), attentive interpretable Tabular learning (TabNet), and RF. For combined data, logistic regression, SVM_Linear, and TabNet had better performance, with an AUROC ≥ 0.65 for each model. Based on these models, 7 pre-operative predictors and 10 combined predictors were depicted in radar plots. A ML-based approach for the identification of in-hospital VTE events after hernia surgery is feasible. TabNet showed acceptable performance, and might be useful to guide clinical decision making and VTE prevention. Further validated study will strengthen this finding.

Impact of Vitamin K Administration on Elevated International Normalized Ratio in Chronic Liver Disease.

Limited studies assess the efficacy of vitamin K administration in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). However, vitamin K is commonly used to treat elevations in international normalized ratio (INR) in these patients with the intended benefit of reducing bleeding risk. This retrospective, single-center cohort study aimed to evaluate the impact of vitamin K administration on INR in patients with CLD. Hospitalized patients ≥ 18 years of age with a diagnosis of CLD or cirrhosis and received vitamin K were included. The primary outcome was the absolute change in INR from baseline to 24 to 48 h after vitamin K administration. Secondary endpoints included subgroup analyses of the primary outcome by route of administration and single versus multidose administration, and incidence of in-hospital venous thromboembolism (VTE) or major bleeding. A total of eighty-five patients, primarily with Child-Pugh class C (76.5%), were included. Route of vitamin K administration included oral (PO) (72%) and intravenous (IV) (26%) with a mean daily dose of 8.5 ± 2.3 mg. The absolute change in INR was -0.07 ± -0.35 following vitamin K administration. There was no difference in absolute INR change between single versus multiple dose administration (-0.16 ± -0.35 and -0.03 ± -0.35; P= .13) or between PO versus IV administration (-0.06 ± -0.23 and -0.18 ± -0.48; P = .11). The incidences of in-hospital VTE and major bleeding were 2.4% and 3.5%, respectively. The administration of vitamin K in hospitalized patients with CLD resulted in minimal INR change, suggesting this intervention may not have the intended benefit of reducing bleeding risk.

Angioembolization in Severe Pelvic Trauma is Associated with Venous Thromboembolism

IntroductionManagement of hemorrhage from pelvic fractures is complex and requires multidisciplinary attention. Pelvic angioembolization (AE) has become a key intervention to aid in obtaining definitive hemorrhage control. We hypothesized that pelvic AE would be associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). MethodsAll adults (age >16) with a severe pelvic fracture (Abbreviated Injury Scale ≥ 4) secondary to a blunt traumatic mechanism in the 2017-2019 American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program database were included. Patients who did not receive VTE prophylaxis during their admission were excluded. Patients who underwent pelvic AE during the first 24 h of admission were compared to those who did not using propensity score matching. Matching was performed based on patient demographics, admission physiology, comorbidities, injury severity, associated injuries, other hemorrhage control procedures, and VTE prophylaxis type, and time to initiation of VTE prophylaxis. The rates of VTE (deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism) were compared between the matched groups. ResultsOf 72,985 patients with a severe blunt pelvic fracture, 1887 (2.6%) underwent pelvic AE during the first 24 h of admission versus 71,098 (97.4%) who did not. Pelvic AE patients had a higher median Injury Severity Score and more often required other hemorrhage control procedures, with laparotomy being most common (24.7%). The median time to initiation of VTE prophylaxis in pelvic AE versus no pelvic AE patients was 60.1 h (interquartile range = 36.6-98.6) versus 27.7 h (interquartile range = 13.9-52.4), respectively. After propensity score matching, pelvic AE patients were more likely to develop VTE compared to no pelvic AE patients (11.8% versus 9.5%, P = 0.03). ConclusionsPelvic AE for control of hemorrhage from severe pelvic fractures is associated with an increased risk of in-hospital VTE. Patients who undergo pelvic AE are especially high risk for VTE and should be started as early as safely possible on VTE prophylaxis.

The ICU-venous thromboembolism score and tumor grade can predict inhospital venous thromboembolism occurrence in critical patients with tumors

BackgroundVenous thromboembolism (VTE) is a threat to the prognosis of tumor patients, especially for critically ill patients. No uniform standard model of VTE risk for critically ill patients with tumors was formatted by now. We thus analyzed risk factors of VTE from the perspectives of patient, tumor, and treatment and assessed the predictive value of the ICU-VTE score, which consisted of six independent risk factors (central venous catheterization, 5 points; immobilization ≥ 4 days, 4 points; prior VTE, 4 points; mechanical ventilation, 2 points; lowest hemoglobin during hospitalization ≥ 90 g/L, 2 points; and baseline platelet count > 250,000/μL, 1 points).MethodsWe evaluated the data of tumor patients admitted to the intensive care unit of the Peking University Cancer Hospital between November 2011 and January 2022; 560 cases who received VTE-related screening during hospitalization were chosen for this retrospective study.ResultsThe inhospital VTE occurrence rate in our cohort was 55.7% (312/560), with a median interval from ICU admission to VTE diagnosis of 8.0 days. After the multivariate logistic regression analysis, several factors were proved to be significantly associated with inhospital VTE: age ≥ 65 years, high tumor grade (G3–4), medical diseases, fresh frozen plasma transfusion, and anticoagulant prophylaxis. The medium-high risk group according to the ICU-VTE score was positively correlated with VTE when compared with the low-risk group (9–18 points vs. 0–8 points; OR, 3.13; 95% CI, 2.01–4.85, P < 0.001). The AUC of the ICU-VTE scores according to the ROC curve was 0.714 (95% CI, 0.67–0.75, P < 0.001).ConclusionsThe ICU-VTE score, as well as tumor grade, might assist in the assessment of inhospital VTE risk for critically ill patients with tumors. The predictive accuracy might be improved when combining two of them; further follow-up researches are needed to confirm it.

Effectiveness and Safety of High-Dose Thromboprophylaxis in Morbidly Obese Major Trauma Patients.

Trauma increases risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) and obesity is a known independent risk factor for VTE development. Currently, no consensus on an optimal prophylactic dosing strategy for morbidly obese trauma patients exists. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a BMI-stratified dosing strategy for VTE prophylaxis in morbidly obese trauma patients. This was a single center, retrospective cohort study of adult major trauma patients with a body mass index (BMI) of ≥40 kg/m2 admitted to the surgical-trauma intensive care unit from April 2014 to July 2020. Patients included were those who received enoxaparin 40 mg subcutaneously (SQ) every 12 hours (Q12H) for BMI of 40 to 49.9 kg/m2 or 60 mg SQ Q12H BMI ≥ 50 kg/m2 (per protocol), or enoxaparin 40 mg SQ Q12H for BMI of 40 to 49.9 kg/m2 (non-protocol). The primary endpoint was confirmed incidence of VTE. Secondary endpoints included occurrence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE) during hospitalization, bleeding events, intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay (LOS) and hospital mortality. One hundred forty-five morbidly obese major trauma patients were included, with 123 patients (84.8%) in the per-protocol group. The primary outcome of in-hospital VTE did not occur in any patients in this group. Bleeding events occurred in 3 patients (2.7%) with a BMI of 40 to 49.9 kg/m2 and in 2 patients (16.7%) with a BMI of ≥50 kg/m2 (P = .064). Twenty-two patients in the non-protocol group were reviewed. One VTE event (4.5%) and no bleeding events occurred in this group. Median ICU LOS was 5 days, and hospital LOS was 11 days for the entire study group. Administration of enoxaparin 40 mg SQ Q12H to morbidly obese major trauma patients with a BMI of 40 to 49.9 kg/m2 and enoxaparin 60 mg SQ Q12H in those with a BMI of ≥50 kg/m2 resulted in low rates of VTE and bleeding events in the current study. However, future larger studies using this BMI-stratified dosing strategy are necessary to confirm these findings.

Is it sufficient to evaluate COVID‐19 infected critically ill patients only in terms of VTE risk factors? What about disease severity?

Dear Editor, We read with great interest the study by Wang et al.1 which was published online and being ahead of print in the Clinical Respiratory Journal. At the beginning of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemia in their single-centre retrospective, observational study, they retrospectively analysed 138 COVID-19 patients and researched the factors for in-hospital venous thromboembolism (VTE) and bleeding. They found that 16.7% of patients with COVID-19 had high risk for VTE according to Pauda Prediction Score; 6.5% of patients had high risk of bleeding for VTE prophylaxis according to Improve Prediction Score. They identified thrombotic events in four patients (2.9%), all of them had deep vein thrombosis (DVT). They found the incidence of VTE as 20% and one major haemorrhage was happened in critically ill patients during VTE treatment. They defined critically ill patients as those admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) who required mechanical ventilation or had a fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO2) of at least 60% or more. They used lower extremity compression ultrasound to detect DVT for all critically ill patients with a high risk of VTE and high level of D-dimer. If ultrasound was positive, patients underwent computed tomography pulmonary angiogram.1 This is an important issue, but there are some practical questions to be answered for a proper clinical extrapolation. First, COVID-19 leads coagulation disorders that are triggered by increased level of procoagulant substances. Sepsis-induced coagulopathy (SIC) and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) are the main causes of coagulation associated mortality in critically ill patients. The SIC criteria established by the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) is often used to guide anticoagulant therapy in hospitalised patients.2 Nevertheless, DVT occurs in majority of patients with critically ill COVID-19. COVID-19 is an acute viral infection which primarily affects respiratory system and if it progresses to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and leads other organ failures, as well. Although Wang et al.1 used Padua Prediction Score and found 16.7% of the patients were at high risk for VTE, VTE was determined in 20% of the patients. According to Padua Prediction Score, patients with chronic conditions such as malignancy, reduced mobility, and thrombophilia get higher risk scores whereas common disorders during COVID-19 course such as heart and respiratory failure, acute myocardial infarction, or ischaemic stroke result in minor score increase. This is the most likely reason of low prediction rate which is reported in the previous study.1 Moreover, apart from thromboembolic situation such as DVT, in patients with COVID-19, pulmonary inflammation may lead susceptibility to embolism.2 Therefore, not only suspicion for DVT, presence of ARDS, elevated D-dimer levels, or worsening in oxygenation should make clinicians consider pulmonary thrombosis and perform chest imaging. Second, it has shown by many studies that severity of COVID-19 is a risk factor for VTE and elevated ferritin, C-reactive protein, D-dimer, and interleukin-6 levels are associated with thromboembolic events and poor prognosis.3 In the previous study by Wang et al.,1 there is not enough data on duration and severity of disease. We believe that considering these factors together with Padua Prediction Score provides better prediction rates for VTE. Third, to determine COVID-19 associated thromboembolism, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score that is one of the disease severity and organ failure scores has been evaluated by some previous studies.4, 5 These studies suggest that in critically ill COVID-19 patients, higher SOFA scores are associated with higher DVT frequency, D-dimer levels, duration of disease, hypoalbuminemia, and duration of disease.4 Other previous study5 reported that higher ISTH SIC scores which include SOFA score, prothrombin time–international normalised ratio (PT-INR), and platelet levels are associated with higher mortality and patients with ISTH SIC score higher than 3 had 3.05-fold increased mortality risk. Both haemodynamic situation and arterial oxygen partial pressure to fractional inspired oxygen ratio (PaO2/FIO2) are components of SOFA score. PaO2/FIO2 ratio is a main determinator of ARDS severity and also reflects the severity of COVID-19. Finally, we believe that further prospective clinical trials need to develop an effectual risk prediction score including disease severity to determine VTE earlier in COVID-19 patients. The authors declare that the letter was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. All authors contributed equally to the letter. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Fondaparinux sodium and low molecular weight heparin for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in Chinese patients with major orthopedic surgery or trauma: a real-world study

BackgroundThe present real-world study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety between fondaparinux sodium (FPX) and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) for venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis in Chinese patients with major orthopedic surgery or trauma.MethodsA total of 2429 patients, with major orthopedic surgery or trauma, underwent FPX (n = 1177) or LMWH (n = 1252) for VTE prophylaxis and were retrospectively reviewed. Primary outcomes, including in-hospital VTE and in-hospital major bleeding incidences, as well as the secondary outcomes, including in-hospital minor bleeding, in-hospital death, and VTE/bleeding/death within 2 months after discharge, were analyzed. Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was conducted.ResultsFPX group exhibited lower in-hospital VTE (0.1% vs. 0.8%; P = 0.032, crude OR = 0.11 before IPTW; P = 0.046, weighted OR = 0.12 after IPTW) and in-hospital minor bleeding (17.8% vs. 26.8%; P < 0.001, crude OR = 0.59 before IPTW; P < 0.001, weighted OR = 0.67 after IPTW) compared to LMWH group. Furthermore, no difference of in-hospital major bleeding, in-hospital death, and VTE/bleeding/death within 2 months after discharge was observed between FPX group and LMWH group (all P > 0.05). Further subgroup analyses identified, in specific cluster of patients such as older age, renal function impairment, hypertension and so on, in-hospital VTE was declined in FPX group compared to LMWH group (all P < 0.001).ConclusionsFPX is probable to exhibit a superior thromboprophylaxis efficacy compared with LMWH in in-hospital patients with major orthopedic surgery or trauma, especially in some special patients such as older age, renal function impairment, hypertension, etc.