Archives of Critical Care Medicine

Background: One of the main causes of morbidity in hospitalized patients, and especially in the intensive care unit (ICU), is venous thromboembolism (VTE). The best way to deal with VTE is prophylaxis. Rational prophylaxis should be provided after risk factor anal[1]ysis. Different prophylaxis regimens are pharmacological and physical. Pharmacological prophylaxis regimens consist of heparin and enoxaparin that are given subcutaneously.

Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate appropriate administration of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis in ICU in an educational hospital.

Methods: Caprini risk assessment model was employed to evaluate patients‘ risk factors. Immobile patients (for three days) with at least one thrombotic risk factor were selected. The Caprini scores were identified from patients’ medical record. Three groups were identified after obtaining the scores: patients at low, medium and high risks. For each group, appropriate prophylaxis regimen was recommended.

Results: A total of 52 patients were evaluated, about 88.46% of the subjects had DVT prophylaxis indication; 10.71% received physical prophylaxis and 89.29% of them received pharmacological prophylaxis. For two-thirds of the patients with pharmacological pro[1]phylaxis enoxaparin was administered and for the other part heparin. Totally, 32.61% of the subjects received correct prophylaxis, 17.39% received inadequate prophylactic doses and 6.52% received higher doses. Totally, 67.39% of the subjects did not receive correct prophylaxis.

Conclusions: According to the collected data, appropriate DVT prophylaxis was not prescribed. It is required to pay serious atten[1]tion to this medication error. It is suggested to invest on educating medical teams about DVT prophylaxis, which is highly demanded.