Objective: SARS-CoV-2 is currently affecting millions of humans worldwide, thus contributing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thromboembolic events have a higher incidence among patients with COVID-19, but there are few reports on the relationship between the prognosis of COVID-19 patients and thromboembolic events. The objectives of this meta-analysis were to explore the relationship between the prognosis of COVID-19 patients and thromboembolic events.
Materials and methods: Medline (PubMed), the Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for case-control studies that included data on vein thrombosis in patients with COVID-19 and were published in English, between January 1 and July 25, 2020. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the included data were confirmed, the prognoses of patients with and without concurrent thromboembolic events were compared, and the odds ratio (OR) was used as the effect size.
Results: Eighteen studies (2,030 patients) were included. Thromboembolic events complicated a total of 609 COVID-19 patients. The combined OR of the mortality of COVID-19 patients with thromboembolic events was 1.93 (95% CI: 1.13-3.27), that of ICU treatment rate was 2.63 (95% CI: 1.49-4.67), and that of treatment with invasive mechanical ventilation was 3.14 (95% CI: 1.97-5.02).
Conclusions: As compared with COVID-19 patients with and without thromboembolism, the mortality, ICU treatment rate, and invasive mechanical ventilation treatment rate of COVID-19 patients with thromboembolism were found to be increased significantly, and the prognosis was worse.