Health and Financial Burdens Associated With Venous Thrombosis in Hospitalized Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a known complication in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Despite awareness of the increased thrombosis risk in this population, prophylaxis is not standardly used and there is limited published guidance for thrombosis prevention. To better appreciate the impact of thrombosis in this population, we compared children with IBD who did or did not have a VTE, using the Pediatric Health Information System inpatient database from 2009 to 2017. In hospitalized children with IBD, VTE was associated with longer median hospital stays (11 vs 5 days), need for intensive care unit admission (30.2% vs 4.8%), higher median adjusted costs ($32.8k vs $12.3k) and hospital charges ($96.6k vs $36k), and in-hospital death (1.5% vs 0.2%) (P < 0.001 in all comparisons). These findings highlight the need to determine and implement appropriate strategies to reduce VTE rates in children with IBD, given its association with high morbidity, mortality, and cost.