EC Emergency Medicine and Critical Care

Thrombocytopenia is a frequent hematologic anomaly in the critical care. Its etiologies are multifactorial, many studies investigated thrombocytopenia in critical care with different results.

As the incidence of thrombocytopenia, identify risk factors associated with the occurrence and determine the prognostic.

A prospective cohort study in the emergency surgical critical department in a university hospital during a period of 9 months.

296 patients were included in the study, 40 presented with a thrombopenia during their ICU stay, with an incidence of 13,5%. The etiologies of the thrombopenias were mostly linked to sepsis and septic shock (66,7%). The only statistically significant risk factor for development of thrombocytopenia in multivariate analysis was a low platelet count on admission. Advanced age at the lowest platelet count were both independent bad prognostic factors in thrombocytopenia patients (age of the dead patients 54,40 ± 16,77, versus 45,50 ± 17,51 for survivors, p = 0,023, OR = 1,084, CI95% = [1,031 - 1,141]).

So, our incidence is 13,5%. The only independent risk factor for thrombocytopenia is the platelet rate on admission. The mortality rate of thrombopenic patients is 50%. Advanced age and the lowest platelet count were bad prognostic factors in thrombopenic patients.

Keywords: Thrombocytopenia; Critical Care; Risk Factors; Mortality; Sepsis

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