Clinical Significance of Deep Vein Thrombosis
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a significant clinical issue since it determines patient health outcomes. DVT is a severe clinical condition caused by a blood clot in veins inside a patient’s body and which causes swelling, cramping, reddening, and pain in the affected area. Patients suffering from upper extremity DVT may not experience symptoms at all or may experience pain in the shoulder, forearm, arm, and neck, or swelling and weakness in the affected arm. Healthcare workers need to pay much attention to this condition considering that it is associated with many preventable causes most of which populations may not know. Badireddy and Mudipalli (2020) establish that DVT could result from damage to blood vessels wall through injury or surgery, certain medications, and reduced activity and mobility. The clinicians ought to target the elderly and high-risk patients most of whom are inactive or have associative risk factors that increase the chances of developing this condition.
Potential Negative Effects if DVT is Left Untreated
Patients with deep vein conditions may ignore thinking that the swelling or the pain will go away, an assumption that would place their lives at a higher risk. This would be the case for patients who do not experience symptoms that would force them to seek medical attention. Stone et al. (2017) note that if untreated the condition may become worse considering that DVT may cause pulmonary embolism when the clot moves into the lung. Patients ought to look for pulmonary embolism symptoms, which include rapid heartbeat or breathing, fainting, weak pulse, and spitting up blood. The blood clot tends to clog arteries in the lung and go as far as damaging a part of the lung owing to decreased oxygen levels and a restriction in blood flow. This restriction may affect other vital organs making pulmonary embolism life-threatening to the extent that it can cause death. If a patient seeks immediate treatment there is a great likelihood that there will be a reduction in the chances of lung damage and death.
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References
Badireddy, M, & Mudipalli, V.R. (2020). Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) Prophylaxis . StatPearls Publishing.
Stone, J., Hangge, P., Albadawi, H., Wallace, A., Shamoun, F., Knuttien, M. G., Naidu, S., & Oklu, R. (2017). Deep vein thrombosis: pathogenesis, diagnosis, and medical management. Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy , 1 (3), 276-284. https://doi.org/10.21037/cdt.2017.09.01
