Korean J Adult Nurs.  2024 Feb;36(1):28-40. 10.7475/kjan.2024.36.1.28.

Characteristics and Effects of Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Devices Interventions to Prevent Venous Thromboembolism in Critical Care Patients: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

• Ryu S
• Kim NY
• Kim YH

• KMID: 2553568
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7475/kjan.2024.36.1.28

Abstract

Purpose
This study aimed to identify the characteristics and efficacy of Intermittent Pneumatic Compression (IPC) interventions for preventing Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) in critically ill patients.
Methods
The CENTRAL, Embase, OVID, CINAHL, KMbase, KoreaMed, and KoreaScience databases were searched from January 7 to 11, 2023. The search included all records from the inception of each database up to January 2023, with publication language restrictions to English and Korean. Three reviewers independently carried out the entire process, which included data search, quality assessment, and data extraction.
Results
Out of 1066 articles, six Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) were included. One of the four studies that reported on the incidence of DVT, and one of the six studies that measured the incidence of Pulmonary Embolism (PE), found that IPC alone was effective in reducing the incidence of DVT and PE. One of the four studies that reported on VTE incidence demonstrated a significant reduction in VTE incidence with a triple intervention of IPC, anticoagulants, and elastic compression stockings compared to a combined intervention of anticoagulants and graduated compression stockings. Four studies that reported data on the incidence of bleeding reported no effect on reducing bleeding.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that IPC interventions may reduce the incidence of DVT as a preventive strategy in critically ill patients. Further RCTs are necessary to evaluate the effect of IPC interventions on DVT prevention in this patient population and to provide robust evidence for critical care nursing.

Keyword

Critical care; Intermittent pneumatic compression devices; Nursing; Systematic review; Venous thrombosis