Abstracts

Rationale: Patients with epilepsy are admitted to Epilepsy Monitoring Units(EMU) for diagnosis, medication management, to screen for epilepsy surgery and also for intracranial monitoring for localizing epilepsy. Most centers use common guidelines for VTE prophylaxis, which are typically developed for acutely ill inpatients. The patients who are admitted to the EMU represent a unique inpatient population. They are typically electively admitted for variable length of stay usually between 2-7 days. Most patients are presumed to be in the lowest risk categories as they are not acutely ill however they are typically confined to the room and ambulation is typically restricted due to risk for seizure related falls and injury. There is a paucity of data on what is the best method to prevent deep vein thrombosis in these patients admitted to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. This study examines the efficacy of sequential pneumatic compression devices in the prevention of deep vein thrombosis(DVT) in patients admitted to the EMU.Methods: A retrospective review was done of the patients admitted to the Epilepsy monitoring unit at Creighton University Medical Center between January 2012 and April 2015. Patients with Cerebral Palsy were excluded from this analysis as they represented a unique subgroup that have severely restricted ambulation, not typical of the vast majority of patients admitted to an EMU. All patients had sequential pneumatic compression device for VTE prophylaxis. Electronic medical records were utilized to look for any incidences of DVT or Pulmonary embolism(PE) during the hospital stay/monitoring period.Results: A total of 178 patients who were monitored in the Epilepsy monitoring unit and had VTE prophylaxis by sequential pneumatic compression device, between January 2012 to April 2015, were included in this analysis. The average duration of stay was 3.52 days and ranged from 1 to 6 days. There were 70 men and 108 women. 85 patients had non-epileptic seizures. None of the patients had DVT or PE during this monitoring period in the EMU.Conclusions: The patients who are admitted to the EMU represent a unique set of inpatients and our study provides data that supports the use of sequential compression devices for adequate DVT prophylaxis in these patients.