Assessment of the effect of education on correct prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis among patients admitted to intensive care unit

Background: Thromboembolism is a serious complication in patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Education of the effective prophylaxis guidelines by physicians can be reduces the incidence of this illness in at-risk patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of education on the correct prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis in patients admitted to the intensive care unit of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 252 patient records. In this study, the correct prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis, according to the Harrison Principles of Internal Medicine Textbook, 19th edition (2015), was taught. This education was given to the physicians in the intensive care unit in terms of prophylaxis indications, proper dosage, type of prophylaxis and unnecessary prophylaxis.

Results: Most of the patients were male (51.59%). Their age in pre and post intervention groups was 58.12 and 56.58 years respectively. After the training intervention, unnecessary prophylaxis (from 7.9% to 4.8% (p=0.54)], inappropriate administration of anticoagulant dose [from 51.6% to 18.2% (p = 0.025), and type of anticoagulant [from 10.3% to 4% (p=0.038)] were reduced. Correct prophylaxis frequency was increased from 30.2% to 73% (p= 0.045).

Conclusion: Education sessions on the prophylaxis of venous thrombosis in high-risk patients can lead to the use of correct prophylaxis and maybe it reduces the frequency of deep vein thrombosis and its complications