WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2008
Leg Blood Clots Are Silent Killers
Surgeon General Says At Least 100,000 Americans Die From Conditions Mistaken For Simple Leg Pain
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"It's a silent killer. It's hard to diagnose," said acting Surgeon General Dr. Steven Galson, who announced the new campaign Monday. "I don't think most people understand that this is a serious medical problem or what can be done to prevent it."
At issue are clots with cumbersome names: A deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, forms in large veins, usually a leg or the groin. It can quickly kill if it moves up to the lungs, where it goes by the name pulmonary embolism, or PE.
These clots make headlines every few years when seemingly healthy people collapse after long airplane flights or being in similarly cramped quarters. Vice President Cheney suffered one after a long trip last year. NBC correspondent David Bloom died of one in 2003 after spending days inside a tank while covering the invasion of Iraq.
But that provides a skewed vision of the problem. While there aren't good statistics, the new surgeon general's campaign estimates that every year, between 350,000 and 600,000 Americans get one of these clots - and at least 100,000 of them die.
There are a host of risk factors and triggers: Recent surgery or a broken bone; a fall or car crash; pregnancy or taking birth control pills or menopause hormones; being immobile for long periods. The risk rises with age, especially over 65, and among people who smoke or are obese.
And some people have genetic conditions that cause no other symptoms but increase their risk, making it vital to tell your doctor if a relative has ever suffered a blood clot.
People with those factors should have "a very low threshold" for calling a doctor or even going to the emergency room if they have symptoms of a clot, said Galson, who issued a "call to action" for better education of both consumers and doctors, plus more research.
Symptoms include swelling; pain, especially in the calf; or a warm spot or red or discolored skin on the leg; shortness of breath or pain when breathing deeply.
But here's the rub: Doctors are ill-informed, too. For example, studies suggest a third of patients who need protective blood thinners when they enter the hospital for major surgery don't get them. And patients can even be turned away despite telltale symptoms, like happened to Le Keisha Ruffin just weeks after the birth of her daughter, Caitlyn.
Ruffin made repeated visits to doctors and emergency rooms for growing pain in her leg and groin in December 2003 and January 2004, but was told it must be her healing Caesarean section scar.
Finally one night, Ruffin's husband ran her a really hot bath for pain relief - only to have her climb out minutes later with her leg swollen three to four times its normal size, and then pass out.
"I like to call that my miracle bath," Ruffin said, because the sudden swelling proved the tip-off for doctors.
Pieces of a giant clot in her right leg had broken off and floated to her lung. The ER doctor "said if I hadn't made it in when I did, I may not have lived through the rest of the night," recalled Ruffin, now 32, who spent a month in the hospital and required extensive physical therapy to walk normally again.
These clots "tend to fall through the cracks" because they cross so many areas of medicine, said Dr. Samuel Goldhaber, chairman of the Venous Disease Coalition and a cardiologist at Boston's Brigham & Women's Hospital.
With the surgeon general's campaign, "DVT after all these years will finally get the national spotlight like cigarette smoking did in the mid-60s," he said.
In addition to Galson's report:
For More Information On The Web:
By AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergard
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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At 5:00 the next morning, he was dead on the bathroom floor of a pulmonary embolism.
This AP article does not address common risks of DVT, which include any long period of sitting down, such as airplane flights, extended periods of desk work, or an especially uncomfortable, circulation-pinching chair.
Soy products have been found to help with clot prevention, along with fish oil. No need for an ER to prescribe an anti-clotting agent like streptokinase, when diet can make a clot less likely in the first place.
Lovesamerica - I have heard people say this kind of *** before! when you grow up you will realize that longivity is everything. I got sick in 1998 and I would have givin 1 million dollars for 1 more day when I thought that was the end. before that happend to me I thought alot like you!
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by sgtbrandi
September 16, 2008 11:33 PM PDT
- I would like to say to most of these people that are writing all of this ***, I had arterial blood clots at the ripe age of 23! I am healthy, and active duty military. My problems wasn''t the fact that I didnt go to the doctor-my problem was that my doctors were IDIOTS! In one month I was sent away at least six times with purple feet that were freezing cold! I was told that I needed to "figure it out myself", amongst other stupid things. By the time I was seen by competent professionals, I could no longer walk and I had no pulses in ANY extremity. After six surgeries I am now deformed. People make fun of me walking down a sidewalk (which I cannot do well do to the drop foot I suffered because of the length of time they waited). My career is over and it was not my choosing! It makes me so *** mad that because of LAZY physicians I no longer can walk and as a women I now see myself as permenantly unattractive due to the hefty amount of scars i suffered. To these people above that say it is your fault, you won''t ever know what the other people are talking about until it is your legs that are missing!
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