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Thromb Haemost 2021; 121(01): 076-085
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1721664
Stroke, Systemic or Venous Thromboembolism

Pharmacologic Thromboprophylaxis and Thrombosis in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: A Pooled Analysis

Rushad Patell‡   *
1   Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
,
Thita Chiasakul‡   *
1   Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
2   Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University and King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society, Bangkok, Thailand
,
Ethan Bauer
3   Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
,
Jeffrey I. Zwicker
1   Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
› Author Affiliations Funding The authors received no specific funding for this work.
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Abstract

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) increases thrombosis in hospitalized patients prompting adoption of different thromboprophylaxis strategies. Safety and efficacy of escalated-dose pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis are not established.

Objectives To determine the pooled incidence of thrombosis/bleeding in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 for standard-dose, intermediate-dose, therapeutic anticoagulation, and no pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis.

Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL were searched up to August 29, 2020 for studies reporting pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis and thrombosis or bleeding. Pooled event rates were calculated using a random-effects model.

Results Thirty-five observational studies were included. The pooled incidence rates of total venous thromboembolism (N = 4,685) were: no prophylaxis 41.9% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 28.1–57.2, I 2 = 76%), standard-dose prophylaxis 19.8% (95% CI: 13.2–28.6, I 2 = 95%), intermediate-dose prophylaxis 11.9% (95% CI: 4.3–28.6, I 2 = 91%), and therapeutic-dose anticoagulants 10.5% (95% CI: 4.2–23.8, I 2 = 82%, p = 0.003). The pooled incidence rates of arterial thrombosis (N = 1,464) were: no prophylaxis 11.3% (95% CI: 5.2–23.0, I 2 = 0%), standard-dose prophylaxis 2.5% (95% CI: 1.4–4.3, I 2 = 45%), intermediate-dose prophylaxis 2.1% (95% CI: 0.5–7.7, I 2 = 45%), and therapeutic-dose anticoagulants 1.3% (95% CI: 0.2–8.8, I 2 = 0, p = 0.009). The pooled bleeding event rates (N = 6,393) were nonsignificantly higher in therapeutic-dose anticoagulants compared with standard-dose prophylaxis, (6.3 vs. 1.7%, p = 0.083).

Conclusion Thrombosis rates were lower in hospitalized COVID-19 patients who received pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis. Thrombosis and bleeding rates for patients receiving intermediate-dose thromboprophylaxis or therapeutic anticoagulation were similar to those who received standard-dose pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis.

Keywords

COVID-19 - anticoagulation - thrombosis - bleeding

* These two authors contributed equally to this work.


Supplementary Material



Publication History

Received: 22 September 2020

Accepted: 08 November 2020

Article published online:
30 December 2020

© 2021. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

Comment to this article:

Waves of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Blood Coagulation—A Link and BeyondThromb Haemost 2021; 121(01): 004-006
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1721778

 

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