SAN DIEGO – Following simple institutional care guidelines helped clinicians identify pediatric patients at moderate-to-severe risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), results from a single-center study showed.
“Hospital-acquired VTE is on the rise in the pediatric population,” lead study author Emily Southard, MD, said at the biennial summit of the Thrombosis & Hemostasis Societies of North America. “This consists of a DVT or [pulmonary embolism] 48 hours or more after admission, or any time at the site of a central venous catheter.”
One published study found a 70% increased incidence in the pediatric population from 2001-2007 (Pediatrics 2009;124[4]:1001-8). More than half of the children in that study (63%) had at least one coexisting complex medical condition, with malignancy being the most common.
Dr. Emily Southard
Hospital-acquired VTE cases tend to harbor a number of complications, said Dr. Southard, who is a pediatric hematology/oncology fellow at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora. For example, 15%-20% of patients with a DVT will have a pulmonary embolism (PE) as well, 26% of patients with upper or lower extremity DVT develop post-thrombotic syndrome, and 3% of patients with PE develop chronic pulmonary hypertension.
“Medical costs are also impacted,” she said. “The cost for a hospital-acquired VTE in pediatrics increased the length of stay by about 8 days and increased the cost of hospital admission by more than $27,000.”
Known risk factors for VTE in this patient population include ICU admission (Odds Ratio, 2.14), presence of a central venous catheter (OR, 2.12), mechanical ventilation (OR, 1.56), and prolonged admission (OR, 1.03 for each day).
Risk factors in pediatric trauma patients include ICU admission (OR, 6.25), transfusion of blood products (OR, 2.1), lower extremity fracture (OR, 1.8), and neurosurgery (OR, 2.13). She and her associates hypothesized that understanding the relative contributions of clinical, biological, and genetic risk factors for pediatric VTE would help appropriately risk-stratify patients and allow better prophylactic approaches.