Arterial thrombotic complications in COVID-19 patients

Abstract

Objectives: To describe our experience of incidence, prognosis and management of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with peripheral arterial thrombosis in a major teaching hospital in Madrid (Spain). Material and methods: we designed an observational cohort study of confirmed (PCR-test) COVID-19 patients at the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre. We analyzed all symptomatic peripheral arterial thrombosis diagnosed and treated during March and April 2020, which corresponds to the first wave of the pandemic. All elective scheduled surgery was canceled during this period due to absence of postoperative intensive care unit (ICU) or resuscitation beds and only urgent surgeries were performed. Results: From March 1 to April 30, 2,943 COVID-19 patients were admitted in our hospital and 261 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). During this period, 154 urgent operations were performed on COVID-19 patients in our hospital. Fourteen COVID-19 patients were diagnosed with symptomatic peripheral arterial thrombosis. The average age was 74 (range, 50-92) and these events were more common in men than in women (12:2). Out of these 14 patients, only 7 underwent vascular surgery by acute limb ischemia. This represented 4.5 % of all urgent operations performed in our hospital. Postoperative mortality was 4 of 7 patients due to re-thrombosis despite anticoagulation. Among the non-operated patients, 2 had floating aortic thrombus and evolved satisfactorily with anticoagulation, while the other 5 patients were managed by palliatives measures due to the poor clinical conditions until they died. No analytical parameter was predictive of arterial thrombosis. No bleedings were recorded in this series. Conclusions: The surgical trauma increased the vulnerability of these patients with COVID-19, and therefore, surgery should be avoided whenever possible. The mortality rate in vascular surgery was dramatically high. The high thrombogenicity of these patients discourages bypass or other revascularization procedures. All hospitalized COVID-19 patients should receive antithrombotic prophylaxis with low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), and those at high risk should be fully anti-coagulated.