A systematic review of patient-related risk factors for catheter-related thrombosis

To identify patient-related risk factors for venous thrombosis in patients with central venous catheters (CVC) or peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC). We performed a systematic review of the literature assessing patient-related risk factors for thrombosis related to CVC or PICC. The databases PubMed, Ovid and the Cochrane library were searched for observational studies pertaining to patient-related risk factors for CVC and PICC-related thrombosis. The initial search through PubMed, Ovid and the Cochrane library yielded 516 results. After 71 duplicates were removed, 445 articles were assessed for eligibility based on title and abstract. Four hundred and eleven articles were then excluded and 33 full text articles were manually assessed for eligibility. Eight articles were eliminated as they did not contain content relevant to the review. Twenty-five studies were then selected to assess 20 risk factors. There were no consistent significant associations for catheter-related thrombosis across the twenty-five studies. Multiple studies identified age, malignancy, diabetes, obesity, chemotherapy, thrombophilia and a history of thrombosis as significant risk factors for catheter-related thrombosis. Inconsistent findings among studies make it difficult to establish which patient-related risk factors are associated with catheter-related thrombosis. Future studies could include larger sample sizes and more cases of catheter-related thrombosis to produce more significant results. Identification of patient-related risk factors could lead to early recognition of upper limb deep vein thrombosis in patients with catheters, thereby preventing complications.