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Holiday Travel: Avoiding Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
The following information is provided by the FDA Consumer Newsletter
By Linda Bren
Holiday travelers will soon clog the nation's highways and inundate its airports in numbers not seen in recent years. The number of travelers over the four-day Thanksgiving holiday is expected to surpass the 31 million Americans who traveled more than 50 miles by car and the 5 million who went by plane in 2003, according to AAA spokesman Lon Anderson. "This is the first year we've seen travel returned to what it was pre-9/11," he says.
No matter what the mode of transportation, sitting motionless for long periods may put some travelers at an increased risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot in a vein deep within the muscles, usually in the calf or thigh. But people can reduce their risk of getting DVT, says the American Heart Association (AHA), by taking some simple precautions on long trips.
The AHA estimates that 1 out of every 1,000 Americans develops DVT each year. "It oftentimes gives you a swollen, painful leg, usually in the calf," says Richard Stein, M.D., a cardiologist and associate chair of medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City and a spokesman for the AHA. "But it can be silent," producing no noticeable signs. "Tragic cases are when ... a piece of thrombus [blood clot] breaks off and goes into the lungs," says Stein. This complication of DVT, known as pulmonary embolism, was brought to public attention in 2003 when it caused the death of 39-year-old NBC reporter David Bloom. Bloom had spent long hours reporting the war in Iraq from the cramped quarters of a military vehicle.
Any long period of immobility--such as being bedridden from illness, recovering from surgery, or sitting for extended periods while traveling--is a risk factor for DVT and pulmonary embolism, says the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). DVT can also develop in other instances when the blood flow in the legs is restricted and slows down. Restricted flow may occur with certain types of cancer and cancer treatment, obesity, inherited clotting disorders, pregnancy, and damage to the veins following injury or orthopedic surgery.
Clotting the blood is "nature's way of trying to prevent bleeding," says Wolf Sapirstein, M.D., a cardiologist at the Food and Drug Administration. But when nature's protective mechanism overcompensates and precautions aren't taken, there is a danger of blood clots.
Read the rest of Holiday Travel and DVT. | |
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