Incidence of Deep Venous Thrombosis in Stroke patients in Medical Intensive Care Unit

Background and Purpose: Venous thromboembolism is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality during the acute recovery period after stroke. This study was designed to study the incidence of DVT in acute stroke patients & determine the risk factors contributing to development of DVT in these patients.Patients &Methods: All patients were examined for possibility of DVT. We searched for limb swelling, local pain or tenderness. Once patient was suspected to be complicated with limb DVT, we request for Doppler ultrasonography (DUS) of the affected limb. The venous system was observed to the presence of compressibility of the vein lumen. For suspected DVT patients , we performed D-dimer assay level and considered it as an important marker for DVT suspicion. Data were collected, entered and checked to an SPSS program. Other co-morbidities and comparing outcome of different types of stroke was noticed. Univariate and multivariate analysis of data allowed us to determine important predictor risk factors for DVT development in stroke patientsResults: 25 of 280 (8.93%) of patients developed DVT.