Interdisciplinary Approach to Thrombosis Management in COVID-19 at a Large Academic Center

JCO Oncol Pract. 2021 Sep;17(9):517-521. doi: 10.1200/OP.20.01056. Epub 2021 May 21.

Abstract

There is an increasing recognition of association of COVID-19 with a distinct coagulopathy and increased risk of thrombosis. Unfortunately, effective strategies to prevent and treat thrombosis in this patient population remain uncertain. In the setting of a worsening pandemic, there is an urgent need to provide practical guidance to the clinicians on management of the coagulopathy, while waiting for the results from large systematic trials to establish best practices. At our institution, we convened an interdisciplinary group of 25 experts in the field of thrombosis from different medical specialties to review available literature and brainstorm management strategies. The group provided a 3-tiered anticoagulation algorithm for patients with COVID-19 along with a pathway for multidisciplinary review of difficult or refractory cases, which are described in this manuscript. In these unprecedented times where medical decision making is made difficult by both the novelty of the disease and paucity of robust data, clinical algorithms such as the one presented here may prove to be helpful for frontline providers caring for individual patients.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Blood Coagulation Disorders*
  • COVID-19*
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Thrombosis* / prevention & control