ASH VTE Guidelines: Pediatrics
The incidence of VTE in children at a population level is very low, but is higher in hospitalized children. Pediatric VTE is considered a severe problem because of the potential for associated mortality and significant complications including PE, and cerebrovascular events, as well as post-thrombotic syndrome. Over recent years there has been a dramatic increase in available information, knowledge, and expertise in relation to appropriate diagnosis, prevention, and clinical management of VTE in neonates and children. The purpose of these guidelines is to provide evidence-based recommendations about the management of VTE in this population.
Access the full guidelines on the Blood Advances website:
Guideline Implementation Tools and Resources
ASH guidelines are reviewed annually by expert work groups convened by ASH. Resources derived from guidelines that require updating are removed from the ASH website.
ASH Clinical Practice Guidelines App
The ASH Clinical Practice Guidelines App provides easy access to every recommendation from all guidelines published by ASH, including rationale for each recommendation, benefits and harms associated with each recommended course of action, and links to the complete evidence-to-decision tables used to develop the recommendations. This app is also available .
ASH Pocket Guides App
The ASH Pocket Guides App includes all of ASH’s pocket guides. This app is also available .
VTE Patient Stories
Caitlin Augustine was diagnosed with chronic deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot that forms in the deep veins, when she was 18 years old during her freshman year of college. At the time, doctors believed she would not survive. Despite having symptoms throughout her life, doctors now believe Caitlin was misdiagnosed for 10 years, and that the clots likely formed after a surgery she had as a child and were exacerbated by hormonal birth control.
After Caitlin was diagnosed, there were many unanswered questions. Due to the size and severity of the clots, Caitlin’s treatment route was unclear. She was put on lifelong blood thinners. Anxious to return to a normal life, after 10 days in the hospital Caitlin quickly returned to school despite being unable to walk. To her surprise, she found it difficult to relate to her friends and fellow students and struggled with post-traumatic stress upon returning.
Looking back, Caitlin wishes she had given herself more time to heal, mentally and physically, before returning to school, but she is thankful for her parents who supported her desire to return to a “new normal” and understood what she was experiencing.
Caitlin is now 30 years old and continues to live with clots that will never go away. Up until just five years ago, she couldn’t work out or run and often dealt with chronic pain and swelling. Caitlin is now able to be active and has defied all expectations. Since her initial diagnosis, Caitlin has made it her mission to educate others about DVT/PE in the pediatric population.