The Clinical Utility of Thrombelastography in Guiding Prophylaxis of Venous Thromboembolism Following Trauma
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2011-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
This study plans to learn more about how to prevent blood clots in the veins of your
extremities. You are at risk of forming these clots after a major injury and when you have
had surgery and are hospitalized on bed rest.
Usually, patients in the SICU at Denver Health who are at risk for blood clots receive
preventative treatment with a FDA-approved medicine called Fragmin. Fragmin is intended to
prevent blood clots from forming but, with the way it is generally used, some patients may
still develop blood clots. All patients treated with Fragmin to prevent blood clots at Denver
Health, currently receive the same Fragmin dose. This treatment is called the "standard of
care".
So far, in the US, there has not been a commonly available test that can tell us:
- if the standard dose of Fragmin is enough to prevent blood clots for everyone, or
- if different patients need different doses, or
- if other blood clot preventing medicines, that work in a different way, should be used
in addition to Fragmin.
The ability of your blood to clot and the strength of the clot formed can be described by a
FDA-approved blood test called thrombelastography, referred to as TEG. TEG may provide us
with answers to each of the questions above. Our preliminary data indicate that it is helpful
in assessing both clotting and bleeding tendencies and may prove useful in guiding treatment
for the prevention of blood clots.
The aim of this study is to determine if a treatment plan using Fragmin, and, if indicated,
one or two additional FDA-approved medicines called anti-platelet drugs, guided by the
results of TEG testing, may be better at preventing blood clots than our current standard of
care.