Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Multicenter Study
Antithrombin III in patients admitted to intensive care units: a multicenter observational study.
The administration of antithrombin III (ATIII) is useful in patients with congenital deficiency, but evidence for the other therapeutic indications of this drug is still uncertain. In Italy, the use of ATIII is very common in intensive care units (ICUs). For this reason we undertook an observational study to determine the pattern of use of ATIII in ICUs and to assess the outcome of patients given this treatment. ⋯ Our study described the pattern of use of ATIII in Italian hospitals and provided information on the outcome of the subgroup treated with sepsis. A meta-analysis of current data from RCTs, together with our findings, indicates that there is no sound basis for using this drug in ICU patients with sepsis.