Acute DIC

The common causes of acute disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) include:

• infection:
  • Gram negative bacteraemia will produce some DIC in 10-20% of patients
  • Gram positive sepsis is a less common cause of DIC
  • systemic fungal infection, malaria, viral haemorrhagic fevers, herpes and influenza are rare causes of DIC
    
    
• obstetric catastrophes:
  • abruptio placentae with amniotic fluid embolism releases a tissue factor into the maternal circulation
  • evacuation of the uterus usually results in prompt termination of the DIC
    
    
• endothelial damage:
  • burns, sunstroke, electric shocks etc
    
    
• incompatible blood transfusion:
  • usually requires ABO incompatibility
  • DIC results from endothelial damaged by complement and not from lysed red cells
    
    
• hepatic disease:
  • acute hepatic necrosis
  • acute fatty liver of pregnancy
  • LeVeen shunt insertion in a patient with ascites