Neonatal Thrombosis: Incidence and Risk Factors in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Iran

Background: Neonatal thrombosis is one of the most important challenges among patients admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), which can lead to an asymptomatic condition, limb loss or even death. This study was performed to determine the incidence and risk factors of neonatal thrombosis in a tertiary care hospital in Tehran, Iran. Material and Methods: In this historical cohort, all neonates admitted to Ali-Asghar children's hospital, Tehran, from Sep 2014 till Mar 2015 were enrolled. If thrombosis happened and proved with Color Doppler ultrasonography, the data about type and place of thrombosis, occurrence of complications, recurrence of thrombosis, and the swelling of the extremity distal to the thrombosis area were collected. The statistical significant level was set less than 0.05. SPSS (version 16) was used for data analysis. Results: The neonatal thrombosis incidence was 2.87% (14 cases out of 489). Most of cases (13, 92.9%) had venous thrombosis and one case (7.1%) had arterial thrombosis. Femoral vein thrombosis following catheter insertion has occurred in 9 cases (64.2%) of thrombosis. In multivariate analysis with multiple regression, a statistical significant relation was found between thrombosis and neonatal age at admission (P <0.0001), using central vein catheter (P <0.0001), history of exchange transfusion (P <0.015), and exclusive breast feeding (P <0.006) suggesting that lower age at admission, using of a central vein catheter or positive history of exchangetransfusion was an independent risk factor for thrombosis; using exclusive breast feeding had a protective effect on thrombosis. Conclusion: Most of our findings are in agreement with the results of other studies. Some interesting results included the significant relation between thrombosis and neonatal age at admission, history of exchange transfusion or exclusive breast feeding.