Should pneumatic compression be used in conjunction with pharmacologic venous thromboprophylaxis: Lessons from the PREVENT trial

Abstract

How to cite this article: Arabi YM, Alsolamy SJ, Al-Dawood A. Should pneumatic compression be used in conjunction with pharmacologic venous thromboprophylaxis: Lessons from the PREVENT trial. Saudi Crit Care J 2019;3:95-8. Pneumatic compression is a widely used method for venous thromboprophylaxis in conjunction with pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis (unfractionated heparin [UFH] and low molecular-weight heparin [LMWH]) among patients admitted to the intensive care units (ICUs). Recently, the Pneumatic Compression for Preventing Venous Thromboembolism (PREVENT) trial (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02040103, Current controlled trials ISRCTN44653506) was published.[1] The PREVENT trial, a multicenter randomized controlled study, assessed whether adjunctive pneumatic compression in critically ill patients receiving pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis would result in lower incidence of proximal lower limb deep vein thrombosis (DVT) than pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis alone.