Venous thromboembolism prevention in intracerebral hemorrhage: A systematic review and network meta-analysis

Introduction To summarize and compare the effectiveness of pharmacological thromboprophylaxis to pneumatic compression devices (PCD) for the prevention of venous thromboembolism in patients with acute intracerebral hemorrhage. Methods MEDLINE, PUBMED, EMBASE, and CENTRAL were systematically searched to identify randomized and non-randomized studies that compared each intervention directly to each other or against a common control (hydration, anti-platelet agents, stockings) in adults with acute spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. Two investigators independently screened the studies, extracted data, and appraised risk of bias. Studies with a high risk of bias were excluded from our final analysis. The primary outcome was the occurrence of venous thromboembolism (proximal deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) in the first 30 days. Results 8,739 articles were screened; four articles, all randomized control trials, met eligibility criteria. Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed to calculate risk estimates using both fixed and random effects analyses. 607 patients were included in the network analysis. PCD were associated with a significant decrease in venous thromboembolism compared to control (OR: 0.43, 95% Credible Limits [CrI]: 0.23–0.80). We did not find evidence of statistically significant differences between pharmacological thromboprophylaxis and control (OR: 0.93, 95% CrI: 0.19–4.37) or between PCD and pharmacological thromboprophylaxis (OR: 0.47, 95% CrI: 0.09–2.54). Conclusion PCDs are superior to control interventions, but meaningful comparisons with pharmacotherapy are not possible due to a lack of data. This requires further exploration via large pragmatic clinical trials.