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. 2018 Jan;24(1):13-21.
doi: 10.1177/1076029616677802. Epub 2016 Nov 15.

Variation in Definitions of Immobility in Pharmacological Thromboprophylaxis Clinical Trials in Medical Inpatients: A Systematic Review

Fan Ye  1 , Lauren N Bell  1 , Joseph Mazza  2 , Arthur Lee  3 , Steven H Yale  1
Affiliations

Variation in Definitions of Immobility in Pharmacological Thromboprophylaxis Clinical Trials in Medical Inpatients: A Systematic Review

Fan Ye et al. Clin Appl Thromb Hemost. 2018 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Although immobility is a common risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in medical inpatients, lack of a consistent definition of this term may limit accurate assessment of VTE risk for thromboprophylaxis.

Objective: To examine various definitions of immobility used in recent pharmacological thromboprophylaxis clinical trials.

Data sources: PubMed and relevant references from articles/reviews from 2008 to 2016 were searched. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and other clinical studies involving adult hospitalized medical patients in acute care hospital settings that used the term immobility were selected. Two investigators independently abstracted data in duplicate, and accuracy was checked by a third investigator.

Results: Twenty-one clinical studies were included. There was heterogeneity among individual VTE risk factors, with respect to the definition of immobility in medical inpatients in these trials. Thirteen studies utilized objective criteria to define "immobility" including duration (12 studies) and distance or time walked (6 studies). In contrast, 7 studies focused principally on subjective definitions (ie, describing the nature of immobility rather than specifying its quantitative measurement). Three RCTs vaguely defined the level of patient's immobility after hospitalization.

Conclusion: Despite the well-known effectiveness of pharmacological thromboprophylaxis for the prevention of VTE in acutely ill medical patients, there is no current consensus on how to define immobility. The heterogeneous nature of definitions of immobility has led to uncertainty about the importance of immobility in VTE risk assessment models. Although clinical studies have incorporated varying definitions of immobility into their inclusion criteria, immobility as a specific VTE risk factor has not been clearly defined.

Keywords: hospitalization; immobilization; pulmonary embolism; venous thromboembolism; venous thrombosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of literature review and analysis.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Characteristics of studies included in this review in terms of the definition of immobility.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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