Why the study?
Does obesity predispose medical intensive care unit patients to venous thromboembolism despite standard chemoprophylaxis?
Does obesity predispose medical intensive care unit patients to venous thromboembolism despite standard chemoprophylaxis?
In medical intensive care unit patients receiving standard heparin prophylaxis, obesity was associated with a non-significant 60% increased risk of VTE, whereas vasopressor use significantly increased the risk threefold.
Obesity-associated VTE risk remains inconclusive in MICU patients on prophylaxis; leaves open need for larger studies on tailored dosing.
Background . Obesity is a significant issue in the critically ill population. There is little evidence directing the dosing of venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis within this population. We aimed to determine whether obesity predisposes medical intensive care unit patients to venous thromboembolism despite standard chemoprophylaxis with 5000 international units of subcutaneous heparin three times daily. Results . We found a 60% increased risk of venous thromboembolism in the body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m 2 group compared to the BMI < 30 kg/m 2 group; however, this difference did not reach statistical significance. After further utilizing our risk model, neither obesity nor mechanical ventilation reached statistical significance; however, vasopressor administration was associated with a threefold risk. Conclusions . We can conclude that obesity did increase the rate of VTE, but not to a statistically significant level in this single center medical intensive care unit population.
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Peters et al. (2016) studied this question.
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