About DVT
Signs and Symptoms of Deep-Vein Thrombosis
Symptoms of DVT may include pain, swelling, tenderness, discoloration or redness
of the affected area, and skin that is warm to the touch. However, as many as half
of all DVT episodes produce minimal symptoms or are completely "silent."
Because a number of other conditions - including muscle strains, skin infections,
and phlebitis (inflammation of veins) - display symptoms similar to those of DVT,
the condition may be difficult to diagnose without specific tests.
Quick DVT Facts:
- DVT occurs in about 2 million Americans every year.
- Up to 600,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. each year for DVT.
- Fatal PE may be the most common preventable cause of hospital death in the United States.
- Only one-third of hospitalized patients with risk factors for blood clots received preventive treatment, according to a U.S. multi-center study.
- Without preventive treatment, up to 60 percent of patients who undergo total hip replacement surgery may develop DVT.
- Cancer patients undergoing surgical procedures have at least twice the risk of postoperative DVT and more than three times the risk of fatal PE than non-cancer patients undergoing similar procedures.
- In the elderly, DVT is associated with a 21 percent one-year mortality rate, and PE is associated with a 39 percent one-year mortality rate.
- PE is the leading cause of maternal death associated with childbirth. A woman's risk of developing VTE is six times greater when she is pregnant.
