A prospective study of the incidence of deep venous thrombosis in hospitalized children

Abstract

The development of acute DVT in children is unusual. As a result, DVT prophylaxis and screening is unnecessary in young children with only two risk factors for the development of the disease. Young age appears to be an important protective risk factor for the prevention of DVT.

Is prolonged use of computer games a risk factor for deep venous thrombosis in children?

“…4 Most episodes occur in association with known risk factors such as malignancy, surgery or thrombophilic states. 2,4 The differential diagnosis of an acutely swollen limb is long. In this example, the initial diagnosis of DVT was missed in this child because of its rarity as well as the lack of recognised risk factors.…”

“…[1][2] Its occurrence usually suggests an inherited or acquired hypercoagulable state. Mechanical obstruction and prolonged immobility such as during air travel have been shown to predispose to DVT in adults, 3 but never before in children.…”

“…Ip et al 1 reported IGT directly proportional to the severity of OSA, and which is reversed by treatment of the apnoea by nasal positive airway pressure. 2 At the same time, Punjabi et al 3 reported in mildly obese individuals insulin resistance again proportional to sleep disordered breathing.…”

Pulmonary embolism: an unsuspected killer

“…Rohrer et al [57] found an incidence of lower extremity DVT of only 0.05% (1 of 93 cases, in a 17-year-old) in hospitalized children with at least two independent risk factors for thrombosis. A study of pediatric intensive care unit patients found 4% to have DVT [58], whereas at autopsy the rate of PE in children was approximately 4% [59].…”

Invasive Approaches to Treatment of Venous Thromboembolism

“…1,2 It has been estimated that the yearly incidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is as high as 250 000 cases in the United States alone [3][4][5] and as many as 100 000 patients die annually from pulmonary embolism (PE). 6 In addition to early risk of PE, late morbidity may develop from recurrent thrombosis and the postthrombotic syndrome.…”