Low venous thromboembolism incidence in high risk medical patients in an Israeli hospital. Can risk assessment be extrapolated to different populations?

Contemporary adequacy of thromboprophylaxis in acutely ill medical patients in Switzerland: a bi-centric prospective cohort

BACKGROUND

Venous thromboembolism is a dreaded complication of hospitalised patients, with associated morbidity, mortality and increased healthcare costs. Previous studies have shown that pharmacological thromboprophylaxis, though effective, is inadequately administered in a large proportion of medical inpatients.

STUDY AIMS

Our primary aim was to evaluate the contemporary adequacy of thromboprophylaxis in medical inpatients admitted to two Swiss hospitals (a university hospital and a regional hospital). The secondary aim was to estimate the 90-day incidence of relevant thrombotic and bleeding events.

METHODS

In this prospective cohort, patients were recruited at the University Hospital of Geneva and the Regional Hospital of Lugano between September 2020 and February 2021 and followed for 90 days for venous thromboembolism and bleeding events. The adequacy of thromboprophylaxis (pharmacological and/or mechanical) at 24h after hospital admission was evaluated according to the simplified Geneva risk score for hospital-associated venous thromboembolism.

RESULTS

Among 200 participants (100 at each site, mean age of 65 years), 57.5% were deemed at high risk of venous thromboembolism at admission. Thromboprophylaxis was adequate in 59.5% (95% CI 52.3-66.4%). Among high-risk and low-risk inpatients, thromboprophylaxis was adequate in 71.3% and 43.5%, respectively, with differences between sites. At 90 days, risks of adjudicated venous thromboembolism, major bleeding and mortality were 1.5%, 1.5% and 6.0%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Despite the extensive literature on thromboprophylaxis, the adequacy of thromboprophylaxis has not improved and remains insufficient among medical inpatients. Implementation and evaluation of clinical decision support systems are critically needed in this field.

CLINICALTRIALS

gov number: NCT05306821.

Evaluation of the Padua Prediction Score ability to predict venous thromboembolism in Israeli non-surgical hospitalized patients using electronic medical records

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is considered a leading safety concern during hospitalization. The Padua Predication Score (PPS) is a risk model conceived to predict VTE among non-surgical hospitalized patients. The study aim was to evaluate the PPS ability to predict VTE in Israeli non-surgical hospitalized patients using data from electronic medical records. A single center, large-scale, historic cohort study of hospitalized non-surgical patients was conducted. Outcomes included clinically diagnosed symptomatic VTE events, bleeding events, and mortality during hospitalization and up to 90 days thereafter, and readmission up to 90 days after discharge. 5117 patient records were analyzed after screening and validation. 1120 (22%) patients were defined per PPS as high-risk, of which 277 (24.7%) were prophylactically treated. The low-risk group included 3997 (78%) patients. Prevalence of symptomatic VTE was low. Overall, 14 (0.27%) VTE events were diagnosed: 3 cases in the high-risk group (0.27%) and 11 (0.28%) in the low-risk group, with no significant difference, p = 0.768. Prophylactic treatment among the high-risk patients did not significantly improve VTE incidence: 1/277 (0.36%) treated vs. 2/843 (0.24%), p = 0.343. There was no significant difference between the study groups regarding the rates of bleeding, unexplained mortality or readmission. PPS was not found to be an efficient tool for identification of non-surgical hospitalized patients with high risk for clinically significant VTE.

Safety and effectiveness of thromboprophylaxis use in hospitalized elderly medical patients at a Saudi tertiary care center

Introduction

Appropriate prescribing of thromboprophylaxis according to guidelines' recommendations can heighten over- or underutilization risk. The study intended to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of appropriate/inappropriate thromboprophylaxis use among hospitalized elderly medical patients.

Methods

A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted, including patients who were ≥60 years old, hospitalized for an acute medical illness that required hospitalization in a medical ward for >48 h, and received thromboprophylaxis. Against the American College of Chest Physicians guidelines, the thromboprophylaxis use appropriateness was assessed.

Results

A total of 370 patients met the inclusion criteria, in 71.9% of whom thromboprophylaxis use was appropriate. The mean age of the included patients was 75 years (±9.1), and 72.4% of them were at high risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), and almost all these patients received appropriate thromboprophylaxis. The occurrence of bleeding was significantly higher in the appropriate use group during hospitalization than the inappropriate use group (11.7% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.009); the majority of these bleeding events were classified as major. There were no differences in VTE events during hospitalization or 90 days all-cause mortality between the two groups.

Conclusion

The study demonstrates high prescribers' compliance with recommendations in high-risk patients. In patients at low risk for VTE, the overutilization of thromboprophylaxis did not increase their bleeding risk. This study suggests that the benefits of thromboprophylaxis in elderly patients, regardless of their VTE risk, may outweigh the risk of bleeding.