“What is the treatment for deep vein thrombosis?”
My mother has been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis, and according to her, it isn't a serious condition at all. But she won't tell me the treatment. What is the usual course of treatment for this?
5 Answers
If she truly has a deep vein thrombosis than the treatment is blood thinners. Also needs to be combined with lifelong wearing of support stockings. DVT is a serious health issue.
Good question. The mainstay of treatment for deep vein thrombosis (DVT), is anticoagulation. Blood thinners used are heparin, Eliquis, and Coumadin. Typically for 3-6 months. If a patient cannot be safely anticoagulated (upcoming major surgery, active bleeding), then a large DVT can be managed by using a filter placed in the Vena cava to prevent pulmonary embolism. The best management of a large DVT in a healthy patient is lysis, which uses TPA, a clot busting medication to break up the DVT.
You need an evaluation by a vascular specialist. There many forms of DVT.
It is not serious if it stays in the leg but can be serious if the clot breaks off and travels to the lungs. For that reason patients are usually placed on anticoagulants such as warfarin for 3-6 months.
A deep vein thrombosis is basically a blood clot in the pipeline that moves blood out of the periphery of the body (most commonly the legs, but sometimes the arms) back to the heart. Depending where the blood clot is and how extensive it is and what symptoms the patient has, the treatment can be just surveillance (watching the patient and perhaps checking some studies every 3-6 months), outpatient anticoagulation (prescribing blood thinners that the patient can take at home), thrombolytics (clot busters that require a minimally invasive procedure that literally removes the clot), or thrombectomy (a surgical procedure that removes the clot). It isn't a one solution kind of problem therefore, it is important to ask your mother what symptoms she has, where the clot is, and what options were offered to her for treatment. In the meantime, she also should be aware that there are possible consequences of having a blood clot in your deep veins no matter how it is treated and she should ask her doctor about these.
KathyLee Santangelo, MD
KathyLee Santangelo, MD
