Effect of Persistent Thrombocytopenia on Mortality in Surgical Critical Care Patients

Abstract

Thrombocytopenia is common among surgical critically ill patients. The relationship between the duration of thrombocytopenia and mortality is not well studied. This retrospective 12-month cohort study was designed to evaluate the association between persistent thrombocytopenia and mortality among surgical critically ill patients to determine the risk factors for persistent thrombocytopenia. The study included adult patients consecutively admitted to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) at our institution. Patients with a diagnosis of thrombocytopenia were identified from a prospective critical care database. We defined patients with persistent thrombocytopenia as those with thrombocytopenia lasting more than 7 consecutive days. The primary outcome of this study was 28-day mortality and the secondary outcomes were lengths of SICU stay and hospital stay. Fifty-one patients experienced persistent thrombocytopenia and 71 experienced nonpersistent thrombocytopenia. Among patients with persistent thrombocytopenia, mortality was significantly higher, and SICU and hospital stays were longer than those with nonpersistent thrombocytopenia. Risk factor analysis failed to predict which patients with thrombocytopenia would develop into persistent thrombocytopenia. Persistent thrombocytopenia is a clinically significant disorder and is associated with poorer outcomes. Future studies are needed to further define this process.