Adjunctive Inferior Vena Cava Filter Placement for Acute Pulmonary Embolism

Inferior vena cava (IVC) filters are sometimes placed as an adjunct to full anticoagulation in patients with significant pulmonary embolism (PE). We aimed to determine the prevalence of adjunctive IVC filter placement in individuals diagnosed with PE, as well as the effect of adjunctive filter placement on mortality in patients with right heart strain associated with PE. This was a retrospective study of patients with acute PE treated with full anticoagulation admitted to a single academic medical center. Information abstracted from patient charts included presence or absence of right heart strain and of deep-vein thrombosis, and whether or not an IVC filter was placed. The endpoint was in-hospital mortality. Over 2.75 years, we found that 248 patients were diagnosed with acute PE, with an in-hospital mortality rate of 4.4%. The prevalence of adjunctive IVC filter placement was 13.3% (33 of 248), and the prevalence of documented right heart strain was 27.0% (67 of 248). In-hospital mortality was 10.2% in the non-filter-treated group (5 of 49), whereas there were no deaths in the filter-treated group (0 of 18); however, the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.37). Both the presence of deep-vein thrombosis and of right heart strain increased the likelihood that an adjunctive IVC filter was placed (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.001, respectively). At our institution, patients were treated with IVC filters in addition to anticoagulation in 13.3% of cases of acute PE. Prospective studies or large clinical registries should be conducted to clarify whether this practice improves outcomes.