Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection in children has been associated with thrombosis, though few cases of COVID-associated pulmonary embolism (PE) have been described. We performed a retrospective review of the nine cases of COVID-19-associated PE during the B.1617.2 variant surge at Texas Children's Hospital. The patient cohort largely contained unvaccinated obese adolescents. All patients were critically ill with two requiring catheter-directed thrombolysis in addition to anticoagulation. Eight of the nine patients had COVID pneumonia along with PE. This report stresses the importance of maintaining a high index of suspicion for PE in pediatric COVID-19 infection and vaccinating obese adolescent patients.
Keywords: COVID-19; anticoagulation; pulmonary embolism.
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