153,220 inpatient pediatric surgical patients were selected from the 2012–2015 NSQIP-P database. Demographic and perioperative variables were documented. Primary outcome was VTE requiring treatment within 30 postoperative days. Secondary outcomes included length of stay (LOS) and 30-day mortality. Prediction models were generated using logistic regression. Mortality and time to VTE were assessed using Kaplan–Meier survival analysis.
305 patients (0.20%) developed 296 venous thromboses and 12 pulmonary emboli (3 cooccurrences). Median time to VTE was 9 days. Most VTEs (81%) occurred predischarge. Subspecialties with highest VTE rates were cardiothoracic (0.72%) and general surgery (0.28%). No differences were seen for elective vs. urgent/emergent procedures (p = 0.106). All-cause mortality VTE patients was 1.2% vs. 0.2% in patients without VTE (p < 0.001). After stratifying by American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class, no mortality differences remained when ASA < 3. Preoperative, postoperative, and total LOSs were longer for patients with VTE (p < 0.001 for each). ASA ≥ 3, preoperative sepsis, ventilator dependence, enteral/parenteral feeding, steroid use, preoperative blood transfusion, gastrointestinal disease, hematologic disorders, operative time, and age were independent predictors (C-statistic = 0.83).
The authors concluded that pediatric postsurgical patients have unique risk factors for developing VTE.
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