Abstract
Concerning the prevention of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in patients after stroke, elastic stockings (ES) and noninvasive screening for DVT are recommended. Therefore, we evaluated the incidence of DVT in patients suffering from acute stroke, using ultrasonography in three hospitals for ten years.
According to this study, nine patients (30%) had DVT (6 proximal DVT and 3 calf DVT) out of thirty patients not using ES. However, ninety-seven patients (9.1%) had DVT (27 proximal DVT and 70 calf DVT) out of one thousand and sixty-three patients using ES. The use of ES made the incidence of proximal DVT drop from 20% to 2.5% with statistical significance. Although the incidence of DVT within the three hospitals was not significantly different, the incidence of calf DVT was higher in the hospital with higher numbers of ultrasonography and the incidence of proximal DVT is higher in the hospital with fewer nurses. Furthermore, from fifty-one patients out of seventy patients with calf DVT, repeated ultrasonography showed that the calf DVT disappeared completely in thirty-four patients (66.7%) and proximal extension of calf DVT was not observed at all.
Although sensitivity of calf DVT depends on the diagnostic technique, we think that it is almost harmless. The important thing when screening is not to overlook proximal DVT.
