The incidence of thrombocytopenia and its association with mortality in patients with sepsis followed in intensive care unit

Aim: Thrombocytopenia is common in Intensive Care Units (ICU) and associated with high mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of thrombocytopenia in patients diagnosed with sepsis and its relationship with mortality and morbidity.
Materials and methods: This study was conducted in the Reanimation ICU of a university hospital. Patients followed and diagnosed with sepsis between January 2014 and January 2018 were collected and the recorded data analyzed retrospectively. Demographic data, comorbidities, disease severity scores, hematological laboratory values and ioutcome were recorded. Thrombocytopenia was defined as the platelet count to be less than 100 x 103 /µL. Patients were divided into two groups as with or without thrombocytopenia and statistical analysis was performed.
Results: The number of patients followed with the diagnosis of sepsis was 299. The median age of the patients was 68 years and 62.9% (n: 188) was male. The rate of invasive mechanical ventilation was 97.7%. Thrombocytopenia was detected in 36.8% of patients. The SOFA score was higher in the thrombocytopenia group (p<0.0001). Additionally, the rate of acute renal failure was 24.1% which was higher in the thrombocytopenia group (p=0.011). In thrombocytopenia group, the blood product transfusion rates were higher (p=0.004). Median ICU hospitalization time was 15 (6-28) days. While the total mortality of sepsis patients was 43.1%, this rate was higher in thrombocytopenia group (p=0.011).
Conclusion: Thrombocytopenia, which is commonly seen in ICU’ s and especially in the septic patients, is thought to be associated with mortality and morbidity.