Summary

Our objective was to overview the effectiveness of intermittentpneumatic compression (IPC) devices to prevent deep veinthrombosis (DVT) in postoperative patients, using meta-analysismethodology.We searched the Medline, metaRegister of ControlledTrials, and Cochrane database for studies published between1970 and October 2004. Our inclusion criteria were: 1)randomized controlled trial of IPC versus no prophylaxis, 2) atleast 20 patients per group, 3) at least one diagnostic DVT imagingtest in all patients, and 4) clinical follow-up for at least theduration of hospitalization. A total of 2,270 patients were in- cluded in 15 eligible studies: 1,125 and 1,145 in the IPC and noprophylaxis group, respectively. The included studies formed atotal of 16 treatment groups and were conducted in orthopedic(5), general surgical (4), oncologic (3), neurosurgical (3) and urologic(1) patient populations. In comparison to no prophylaxis,IPC devices reduced the risk of DVT by 60% (relative risk 0.40,95% CI 0.29 – 0.56; p< 0.001). Contemporary randomized trialsshould be undertaken to test the utility of IPC in hospitalizedmedical patients as well as combined pharmacological plus IPCprophylaxis in both medical and surgical patients.