Thromboembolism in the Sub-Acute Phase of Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review of the Literature

This study reviews the risk of blood clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolism) and deep veins (deep vein thrombosis) in people with spinal cord injuries during the sub-acute phase, which is 3–6 months after the injury. The authors looked at previous studies to find out how common these blood clots are during this time and what kind of treatments are used to prevent them. The review found that spinal cord injury patients continue to have a significant risk of blood clots even after the initial injury period. Doctors should therefore be vigilant about the possibility of blood clots and consider continuing preventative treatments for a longer time.

• 1
  The review identified seven relevant articles, but they were too different to combine their results statistically.
• 2
  The included studies reported that the incidence of pulmonary embolism (PE) ranged from 0.5% to 6.0%, while the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) ranged from 2.0% to 8.0% in the sub-acute phase of SCI.
• 3
  The type of thromboprophylaxis used was poorly reported in the studies.