Prevalence of Venous Thromboembolism in Intensive Care Units: A Meta-Analysis

Xiaoyu Gao; Liangnan Zeng; Haorun Wang; Shan Zeng; Junjie Tian; Ligang Chen; Tangming Peng

doi:10.3390/jcm11226691

Prevalence of Venous Thromboembolism in Intensive Care Units: A Meta-Analysis

J Clin Med. 2022 Nov 11;11(22):6691. doi: 10.3390/jcm11226691.

Authors

Xiaoyu Gao^{1

2}, Liangnan Zeng³, Haorun Wang², Shan Zeng², Junjie Tian², Ligang Chen², Tangming Peng²

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, China.
² Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, China.
³ Department of Nursing, The Fifth Affiliated People's Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610000, China.

Abstract

Objective: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a life threating complication in intensive care units (ICUs). This study aimed to pool the prevalence of VTE and examined the risk factors of VTE in intensive care patients worldwide.

Methods: A systematic search in PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science databases was performed. Studies reported that the data on the prevalence of VTE or relevant information were synthesized using a random-effects model.

Results: A total of 42 studies reporting on 27,344 patients were included. The pooled prevalence of VTE was 10.0% (95% CI: 7.0-14.0%). Subgroup and metaregression analyses found that thromboprophylaxis strategy, simplified acute physiology score (SAPS II), age, study quality, sample size, malignancy, sex, spinal cord injury and injury severity score (ISS) moderated the prevalence of VTE in intensive care patients.

Conclusions: The present meta-analysis revealed a high prevalence of VTE in critically ill patients. The risk factors of VTE included thromboprophylaxis strategy, SAPS II, age, malignancy, sex, spinal cord injury and ISS. Therefore, we need to pay more attention to high-risk populations of VTE in intensive care patients.

Keywords: intensive care unit; meta-analysis; venous thromboembolism.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Science and Technology foundation of Sichuan (2021YJ0430); Luzhou Municipal People’s Government–Southwest Medical University Joint Project (2020LZXNYDJ33).