“How long do you stay in hospital with a blood clot?”

If it is a simple blood clot, localized, non-extensive, with no evidence of migrating to the lungs (a condition called pulmonary embolism), you typically just stay one day to get the blood thinner medication started. There are times when you need to stay longer, for example, if the clot is very extensive (which may require a procedure called "thrombectomy," or insertion of a temporary IVC filter), or if the clot has broken off and traveled to the lungs, causing pulmonary embolism.

Vinh-Linh Nguyen, M.D.