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Updated: Jun 22, 2025
Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Screening for Proximal Lower Extremity Deep Venous Thrombosis
Published on: February 10, 2023
Screening and Prophylaxis for Venous Thromboembolism in Pediatric Surgery: A Systematic Review
Lorraine I Kelley-Quon1, Shannon N Acker2, Shawn St Peter3
1Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Objective:
The American Pediatric Surgical Association Outcomes and Evidence-Based Practice Committee conducted a systematic review to describe the epidemiology of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in pediatric surgical and trauma patients and develop recommendations for screening and prophylaxis.
Methods:
The Medline (Ovid), Embase, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases were queried from January 2000 through December 2021. Search terms addressed the following topics: incidence, ultrasound screening, and mechanical and pharmacologic prophylaxis. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. Consensus recommendations were derived based on the best available literature.
Results:
One hundred twenty-four studies were included. The incidence of VTE in pediatric surgical populations is 0.29% (Range = 0.1%-0.48%) and directly correlates with surgery type, transfusion, prolonged anesthesia, malignancy, congenital heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, infection, and female sex. The incidence of VTE in pediatric trauma populations is 0.25% (Range = 0.1%-0.8%) and directly correlates with injury severity, major surgery, central line placement, body mass index, spinal cord injury, and length-of-stay. Routine ultrasound screening for VTE is not recommended. Consider sequential compression devices in at-risk nonmobile, pediatric surgical patients when an appropriate sized device is available. Consider mechanical prophylaxis alone or with pharmacologic prophylaxis in adolescents >15 y and post-pubertal children <15 y with injury severity scores >25. When utilizing pharmacologic prophylaxis, low molecular weight heparin is superior to unfractionated heparin.
Conclusions:
While VTE remains an infrequent complication in children, consideration of mechanical and pharmacologic prophylaxis is appropriate in certain populations.
Type Of Study:
Systematic Review of level 2-4 studies.
Level Of Evidence:
Level 3-4.
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