Thrombosis and hemorrhage in the critically ill cirrhotic patients: five years retrospective prevalence study

Cirrhotic patients present a complex interaction between deficient synthetic liver function, hemodynamic abnormalities and superimposed conditions that alter coagulation system. This alters both coagulation and fibrinolytic processes,increasing bleeding and thrombosis risks. Particularly, critically ill cirrhotic patients represent a diagnostic challenge since they have multiple comorbidities making the thrombotic and bleeding risks unpredictable. The prevalence of bleeding and thrombosis in this subset of patients remains poorly described. The main aim of this article is to describe the prevalence of thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications in cirrhotic patients admitted between 2007 and 2012 at Médica Sur Clinic and Foundation ICU.

We performed a five years retrospective study including every cirrhotic patient admitted to ICU between January 2007 and December 2012.

The incidence of hemorrhage was 48.5%, the overall incidence of thrombotic complications was 13.66%. Variceal bleeding was the most prevalent hemorrhagic event and portal vein thrombosis the most common thrombotic event. Factors associated with presenting a bleeding episode included kidney injury, infection an thrombosis. Factors associated with increased thrombotic risk included ascitis,infection and bleeding.

Critically ill cirrhotic patients have an high risk for both thrombotic and bleeding episodes. The association between the presence of bleeding and thrombotic events was statistically significant.