Your doctor may suggest putting a filter in your vena cava. This is the main vein that carries blood from your lower body to your heart. This filter can catch a clot as it moves through your bloodstream and prevent it from reaching your lungs.
This treatment is more common for people who have had several blood clots travel to their lungs. It is important to start treatment right away for DVT. It takes about 3 to 6 months for a blood clot to go away. During this time, there are things you can do to relieve symptoms. Elevate your leg to reduce swelling. Talk to your doctor about using compression stockings. These cover the arch of your foot up to your knee. They create pressure on your leg to reduce swelling and relieve pain.
For some people, the clot may never fully dissolve. This can cause scar tissue in your veins. DVT also can lead to post-thrombotic syndrome. People who get this have chronic long-term swelling and pain. If you have DVT and experience the following symptoms, get help right away. These are signs that the clot may have traveled to your lungs. You could be having a pulmonary embolism. This article was contributed by: familydoctor. This information provides a general overview and may not apply to everyone.
Talk to your family doctor to find out if this information applies to you and to get more information on this subject. This clot can then travel through your body. Your body continues to change in the second trimester of pregnancy. As your baby continues to grow, so does…. Visit The Symptom Checker. Read More. Food Poisoning. Acute Bronchitis. Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. Bursitis of the Hip. Abnormal Uterine Bleeding. High Blood Pressure. Table of Contents. What is deep vein thrombosis DVT?
Symptoms of DVT. What causes DVT? You are at higher risk for DVT if you: Are 60 years of age or older. Are inactive for a long period of time, such as when you are flying in an airplane, taking a long car trip, or recovering in bed after surgery. Have a condition that causes increased blood clotting. During a venogram, a liquid called a contrast dye is injected into a vein in your foot.
The dye travels up the leg and can be detected by X-ray , which will highlight a gap in the blood vessel where a clot is stopping the flow of blood. Treatment for DVT usually involves taking anticoagulant medicines. These reduce the blood's ability to clot and stop existing clots getting bigger. Heparin and warfarin are 2 types of anticoagulant often used to treat DVT. Heparin is usually prescribed first because it works immediately to prevent further clotting.
After initial treatment, you may also need to take warfarin to prevent another blood clot forming. These medications include rivaroxaban and apixaban, and they've been shown to be as effective as heparin and warfarin with less serious side effects. You'll also be prescribed compression stockings to wear every day, which will improve your symptoms and help prevent complications.
Read more about treating DVT. If you need to go into hospital for surgery, a member of your care team will assess your risk of developing a blood clot while you're there.
If you're at risk of developing DVT, there are a number of things you can do to prevent a blood clot occurring, both before you go into hospital. These include temporarily stopping taking the combined contraceptive pill, and while you're in hospital, such as wearing compression stockings. When you leave hospital, your care team may also make some recommendations to help prevent DVT returning or complications developing.
These may include:. When taking a long-distance journey 6 hours or more by plane, train or car, you should take steps to avoid getting DVT. Drink plenty of water, perform simple leg exercises and take regular, short walking breaks. Read more about preventing DVT. When you're inactive your blood tends to collect in the lower parts of your body, often in your lower legs. This is usually nothing to worry about because when you start to move, your blood flow increases and moves evenly around your body.
However, if you're unable to move for a long period of time — such as after an operation, because of an illness or injury, or during a long journey — your blood flow can slow down considerably. A slow blood flow increases the chances of a blood clot forming. If you have to go into hospital for an operation or procedure, your risk of getting a blood clot increases. This is because DVT is more likely to occur when you're unwell or inactive, or less active than usual.
As a patient, your risk of developing DVT depends on the type of treatment you're having. You may be at increased risk of DVT if any of the following apply:. You may also be at increased risk of DVT if you're much less active than usual because of an operation or serious injury and have other DVT risk factors, such as a family history of the condition.
When you're admitted to hospital you'll be assessed for your risk of developing a blood clot and, if necessary, given preventative treatment. If the wall of a blood vessel is damaged, it may become narrowed or blocked, which can cause a blood clot to form.
Blood vessels can be damaged by injuries such as broken bones or severe muscle damage. Sometimes, blood vessel damage that occurs during surgery can cause a blood clot, particularly in operations on the lower half of your body. Conditions such as vasculitis inflammation of the blood vessels , varicose veins and some forms of medication, such as chemotherapy , can also damage blood vessels.
Your risk of getting DVT is increased if you have a condition that causes your blood to clot more easily than normal. These conditions include:. During pregnancy, blood clots more easily. It's the body's way of preventing too much blood being lost during childbirth. DVTs are also rare in pregnancy, although pregnant women are up to 10 times more likely to develop thrombosis than non-pregnant women of the same age.
A clot can form at any stage of pregnancy and up to 6 weeks after the birth. Having thrombophilia a condition where the blood has an increased tendency to clot , or having a parent, or brother or sister, who's had a thrombosis, increase your risk of developing a DVT during pregnancy. LMWH is an anticoagulant, which means it prevents the blood clot getting bigger.
It's given by injection and doesn't affect your developing baby. The combined contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy HRT both contain the female hormone oestrogen. Oestrogen causes the blood to clot a bit more easily than normal, so your risk of getting DVT is slightly increased.
There's no increased risk from the progestogen-only contraceptive pill. Anticoagulant medicines prevent blood clots getting bigger.
They can also help stop part of the blood clot breaking off and becoming lodged in another part of your bloodstream an embolism. Although they're often referred to as "blood-thinning" medicines, anticoagulants don't actually thin the blood. They alter proteins within it, which prevents clots forming so easily. Heparin and warfarin are 2 types of anticoagulants that are used to treat DVT.
After this initial treatment, you may also need to take warfarin to prevent another blood clot forming. The dose of standard unfractionated heparin to treat a blood clot varies significantly from person to person, so the dosage must be carefully monitored and adjusted if necessary.
You may need to stay in hospital for 5 to 10 days and have frequent blood tests to ensure you receive the right dose. LMWH works differently from standard heparin. It contains small molecules, which means its effects are more reliable and you won't have to stay in hospital and be monitored. In rare cases, heparin can also cause an extreme reaction that makes existing blood clots worse and causes new clots to develop.
This reaction, and weakening of your bones, is less likely to occur when taking LMWH. Warfarin is taken as a tablet. You may need to take it after initial treatment with heparin to prevent further blood clots occurring. Your doctor may recommend that you take warfarin for 3 to 6 months. In some cases, it may need to be taken for longer, even for life. As with standard heparin, the effects of warfarin vary from person to person. You'll need to be closely monitored by having frequent blood tests to ensure you're taking the right dosage.
When you first start taking warfarin, you may need to have 2 to 3 blood tests a week until your regular dose is decided. After this, you should only need to have a blood test every 4 weeks at an anticoagulant outpatient clinic. Warfarin can be affected by your diet, any other medicines you're taking, and by how well your liver is working. Warfarin isn't recommended for pregnant women who are given heparin injections for the full length of treatment.
Rivaroxaban comes in tablet form. It's a type of anticoagulant known as a directly acting oral anticoagulant DOAC. It prevents blood clots forming by inhibiting a substance called factor Xa and restricting the formation of thrombin an enzyme that helps blood clot. Treatment usually lasts 3 months and involves taking rivaroxaban twice a day for the first 21 days and then once a day until the end of the course.
Read the NICE guidance about rivaroxaban. Like rivaroxaban, apixaban is a DOAC that's taken orally as a tablet, and prevents blood clots forming by hindering factor Xa and restricting the formation of thrombin. Read the NICE guidance about apixaban. Wearing compression stockings helps prevent calf pain and swelling, and lowers the risk of ulcers developing after having DVT. They can also help prevent post-thrombotic syndrome. This is damage to leg tissue caused by the increase in venous pressure that occurs when a vein is blocked by a clot and blood is diverted to the outer veins.
They do not, however, break up existing clots that have already formed. Sometimes patients with DVT are also asked to wear a prescription stocking to help treat the symptoms of swelling and prevent skin changes that can occur over time from the damage to the vein from the DVT.
Skin changes can include dermatitis, skin discoloration, scarring and ulcers. Some health care providers may recommend sequential compression devices to promote blood flow. Anticoagulant therapy helps to prevent clots from forming and diminishes the risk of a pulmonary embolus. It consists of heparin, which may be given intravenously or, more frequently, by subcutaneous injection, followed by warfarin, which can be given orally and continued on an outpatient basis.
The health care providers may also recommend thrombolysis, using an intravenous agent that dissolves clots.
With this procedure, a catheter is threaded up through the clot, and one of the clot-dissolving drugs is injected to dissolve it. The clotbuster is injected slowly through a catheter with many tiny holes into the area of the DVT, much like a soaker hose. Sometimes a tiny vacuum cleaner is used to suck out the softened clot.
Once the clot is gone, balloon angioplasty or stenting may be necessary to open the narrowed vein, but this is common only in the iliac veins, located in the pelvic area. With this approach, the patient will also need anticoagulant medication heparin to prevent new blood clot formation while the existing clot is being dissolved. For a few patients who have valid reasons for clot removal but for whom clot-dissolving drugs cannot be used, extraction of the clot, through a small incision at the groin, may be recommended.
Both approaches are designed to remove the clot and restore the venous system to normal, but they involve additional risk and expense and therefore are applied selectively by the appropriate vascular specialist. Clot removal, by either technique, is usually recommended only for major clots higher up in the leg, and particularly in active, healthy patients without any serious associated diseases.
It can significantly reduce the serious late after effects of DVT, such as chronic leg swelling, discoloration, and ultimately, ankle ulcers, but they do so at an increased risk of serious bleeding. Deep Vein Thrombosis Flyer. Air Travel and DVT. Venous Thromboembolism and DVT. Compression Stockings for DVT. Vascular Cures is inviting patients and advocates to share their stories, advise on our programs, and help us advocate for patient needs.
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