Some thought about DVT prophylaxis in ICU.
Part of my presentation on the same topic.

Question 1: What is the incidence of DVT and PE in current era of widespread thrombo-prophylaxis?
#FOAMed

Question 2: How do you diagnose DVT in ICU?
▶️I think, the best evidence is available for CUS with limited scope for Venography.
And no role of D-Dimer.
#FOAMed
Question 3: Is there any evidence supporting Heparin thrombo-prophylaxis in ICU?
#FOAMed

Yes.
1⃣Number needed to prophylax to prevent 1 DVT - 20
2⃣Number needed to prophylax to prevent 1 PE - 52
3⃣Overall no major bleeding. But bleeding risk need to be individualised.
Question 4: Is there any evidence of LMWH over UFH in VTE Prophylaxis?
#FOAMeYes.
1⃣LMWH decreases DVT. But no difference in Proximal DVT.
2⃣No difference in PE.
3⃣No difference in major bleeding.
4⃣Lower incidence of HIT in LMWH (PROTECT Trial).
5⃣Overall advantage LMWH.
Question 5: Is there any role of Mechanical Thromboprophylaxis?
#FOAMed
Question 6: What is the evidence for Pharmacological Thromboprophylaxis in patients with low CrCL?

1⃣Maximum evidence is for Dabigatran.
2⃣But unfortunately even on Dabigtran with adequate Anti-factor Xa level maintained both DVT and bleeding risk remains high.
#FOAMed
Question 7: Any evidence in TBI?
#FOAMed
Suggestions.
1⃣GCS 13-15. No bleed expansion at 48-H. Start.
2⃣GCS 13-15. Some expansion at 48-H. Start only after 72-H.
3⃣GCS 3-12. Not before 72 H. But before 7-days.
4⃣For DAI. No bleeding. Start after 72-H.
5⃣Consult Neurosurgery.
Question 8: How to treat DVT in ICU?
#FOAMed
1⃣Standard anticoagulation.
2⃣Limited role for Catheter Directed Thrombolysis.
Question 9: How do I provide DVT prophylaxis in my ICU?
#FOAMed

1⃣All ICU patients need DVT prophylaxis.
2⃣Pharmacological preferred over Mechanical.
3⃣If DVT prophylaxis not given for some reason, the reason must be documented.
Question 10: Is there any evidence for DOACs?
#FOAMed
1⃣Yes. For several of them.
2⃣APEX supports Betrixaban for prophylaxis.
3⃣Xalia supports Rivaroxaban for treatment.
4⃣But will be cautious in using them in my patients. Limited evidence in ICU patients. Limited reversal agent.

More from Health

Before we get too far into 2021, I thought I’d write a thread recapping some of the research that came out of my lab in 2020. Most of this work was led by my talented team of graduate students, Kerrianne Morrison, @kmdebrabander, and @DesiRJones.

Back in January, a news story was published about Kerrianne’s study showing improved social interaction outcomes for autistic adults when paired with another autistic partner.

A detailed thread about the study and a link to the paper can be found here (feel free to DM me your email address if you’d like a copy of the full paper for this study or any of our studies):


Another paper published early in 2020 (it appeared a few months earlier online) showed that traditional standalone tasks of social cognition are less predictive of functional and social skills among autistic adults than commonly assumed in autism research.


Next, @kmdebrabander led and published an innovative study about how well autistic and non-autistic adults can predict their own cognitive and social cognitive performance.
1/15
Why can cefepime cause neurological toxicity?

And why is renal failure the main risk factor for this complication?

The answer requires us to learn about cefepime's structure and why it unexpectedly binds to a certain CNS receptor.

#MedTwitter #Tweetorial


2/
Let's establish a few facts about cefepime:

🔺4th generation cephalosporin antibiotic
🔺Excretion = exclusively in the urine (mostly as unchanged drug)
🔺Readily crosses the blood-brain barrier (so it easily accesses the brain)

https://t.co/rjYG1BfGPR


3/
The first report of cefepime neurotoxicity was in 1999.

A patient w/ renal failure received high doses of cefepime and then developed encephalopathy, tremors, myoclonic jerks, and tonic-clonic seizures.

✅All symptoms resolved after hemodialysis.

https://t.co/u7JLVitQpp


4/
Cefepime neurotoxicity is surprisingly common, occurring in up to 15% of treated critically ill patients (w/ symptoms varying from encephalopathy to seizures).

💡The main risk factors = renal failure and lack of dose adjustment for renal function.

https://t.co/nxbnzSq8AR


5/
What about cefepime induces neurotoxicity?

One clue is that it's not the only antibiotic that causes neurotoxicity, particularly seizures.

This actually is a class effect w/ other beta-lactam antibiotics (including penicillins and carbapenems).

https://t.co/Lf4BhON9IY

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The YouTube algorithm that I helped build in 2011 still recommends the flat earth theory by the *hundreds of millions*. This investigation by @RawStory shows some of the real-life consequences of this badly designed AI.


This spring at SxSW, @SusanWojcicki promised "Wikipedia snippets" on debated videos. But they didn't put them on flat earth videos, and instead @YouTube is promoting merchandising such as "NASA lies - Never Trust a Snake". 2/


A few example of flat earth videos that were promoted by YouTube #today:
https://t.co/TumQiX2tlj 3/

https://t.co/uAORIJ5BYX 4/

https://t.co/yOGZ0pLfHG 5/
Trump is gonna let the Mueller investigation end all on it's own. It's obvious. All the hysteria of the past 2 weeks about his supposed impending firing of Mueller was a distraction. He was never going to fire Mueller and he's not going to


Mueller's officially end his investigation all on his own and he's gonna say he found no evidence of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election.

Democrats & DNC Media are going to LITERALLY have nothing coherent to say in response to that.

Mueller's team was 100% partisan.

That's why it's brilliant. NOBODY will be able to claim this team of partisan Democrats didn't go the EXTRA 20 MILES looking for ANY evidence they could find of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election

They looked high.

They looked low.

They looked underneath every rock, behind every tree, into every bush.

And they found...NOTHING.

Those saying Mueller will file obstruction charges against Trump: laughable.

What documents did Trump tell the Mueller team it couldn't have? What witnesses were withheld and never interviewed?

THERE WEREN'T ANY.

Mueller got full 100% cooperation as the record will show.