Study design
This single-center observational study of 198 patients included 75 (38%) who needed admission to the intensive care unit (ICU).
Key findings
Venous thromboembolic (VTE) complications are higher in patients admitted to the ICU with coronavirus disease-2019 than those without. In 1 week, 20% had a diagnosis of VTE despite routine thromboprophylaxis. At 3 weeks, this number rose to 42%. Among those with symptomatic VTE, 25% died.
Commentary
Systemic coagulopathy has been described since the beginning of the severe acute respiratory syndrome novel coronavirus-2 global pandemic. Even though, in most ICUs, VTE thromboprophylaxis is the standard of care, the questions has been raised more than once about the potential need for higher or therapeutic doses of pharmacologic prophylaxis. Physicians need to weigh the increased bleeding risk with the potential improvement in VTE incidence and associated morbidity and mortality rates. Regardless, the index of suspicion for VTE in coronavirus disease-2019 positive patients should be high. I suspect we will be analyzing data from 2020 for a long time.
J Thromb Haemost 2020;18:1995-2002.