Muchintala R, Khan A, Kalia K, et al.
Cureus. 2025;17(6):e86370. doi:10.7759/cureus.86370
This large retrospective cohort study using the MIMIC-IV database found that ICU patients who missed pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis had a significantly higher in-hospital mortality rate (17.1% vs. 11.6%) compared to those who received it. Interestingly, ICU length of stay was shorter in the missed group (1.8 vs. 3.8 days), likely reflecting survivorship bias. Prophylaxis was associated with a 65% reduction in the odds of in-hospital death (adjusted OR 0.35). These findings highlight the clinical importance of standardized VTE prevention protocols and support system-level safeguards such as automated alerts and default order sets to improve compliance and patient outcomes in critical care.
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Thank you to Cureus for publishing this valuable study and for making high-quality critical care research openly available.