Research Development on Wearable Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation for Preventing Deep Vein Thrombosis in Lower Extremity

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a common disease that causes global healthcare, social, and economic challenges, and its clinical harm and social impact cannot be ignored. The current prevention and treatment system has significant deficiencies, with traditional anticoagulant drugs posing a risk of bleeding, poor compliance with intermittent pneumatic compression therapy, and a lack of continuous long-term home-based treatment for most patients after discharge. The huge gap between clinical needs and prevention and treatment methods urgently requires innovative solutions. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is an effective non-invasive treatment method for preventing DVT of lower extremity. It stimulates the lower limb muscles to produce a "muscle pump" effect, which helps to increase blood circulation in the lower limbs, reduce venous stasis, improve nerve supply to the low limb veins, and reduce the risk of DVT. However, conventional NMES has disadvantages such as poor portability, limited applicability, and electrode induced skin allergies. With the rapid development of wearable devices, NMES combined with new biomaterials offers more advantages in reducing DVT risks and promoting remote home-based applications. Although there is no international consensus on the optimal intervention window for NMES to prevent DVT, the breakthrough progress of wearable NMES devices provides an innovative solution for clinical practice that combines early intervention feasibility and long-term treatment sustainability. This review elaborates on the mechanisms, application prospects, and intervention timing of wearable NMES in preventing DVT of lower extremity, in order to provide references for the clinical application of this technology.