The incidence of asymptomatic thrombosis related to peripherally inserted central catheter in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis People's.

The review included 10 studies, and the reported incidence varied widely from 2.2% to 58%. Half of the studies were conducted in China, and regions such as Africa or Oceania were not represented, so the results may not generalize there. The frequency of ultrasound screening differed between studies, which could affect the detected incidence. Prospective studies were unclear about whether sample size was adequate and whether data analysis covered the identified sample. The paper describes four studies examining risk factors, but the limitations say only two studies examined risk factors, so the risk-factor evidence is inconsistent and could not be quantitatively pooled. The methods said no language restriction was applied, but non-English papers were excluded.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The paper lists Shanghai Jiao Tong University as the funder.

Do not treat the 22% pooled incidence as a fixed patient risk. It came from 10 studies with different ultrasound schedules, ranging from 2.2% to 58%, and the review did not test whether routine screening improves outcomes.