Comparative Hemodynamic Study of Mechanical Compression Devices for Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis

Introduction: Venous thromboembolic disease is a leading cause of hospital mortality and morbidity among surgical patients. Previous studies have demonstrated improved clinical outcomes and patient compliance with portable compression devices compared with stationary compression devices. Method: We compared the acceleration of venous blood flow velocity for 20 subjects using three various devices. Each subject underwent five consecutive measurements of peak venous flow velocity with each device activation on a single calf using Doppler examination. Result: The average peak venous flow velocity was 49.67, 48.66, 43.61 for Aviafit (Device 1), FM220 (Device 2), KCE (Device 3), respectively. Repeated Measures Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) revealed no statistically significant difference among the devices (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The battery-operated, smaller, portable compression devices demonstrate equal peak venous flow velocity when compared to the conventional SCD device. With improved compliance, this may result in improved clinical outcomes.