Deep venous thrombosis in patients with chronic spinal cord injury

Abstract

Context/Objective: Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is a well-known complication of an acute spinal cord injury (SCI). However, the prevalence of DVT in patients with chronic SCI has only been reported in a limited number of studies. The aim of our study was to examine the prevalence of DVT in patients with SCI beyond three months after injury.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Rehabilitation Department at the Bydgoszcz University Hospital in Poland.

Participants: Sixty-three patients with SCI that were more than 3 months post injury. The patients, ranging in age from 13 to 65 years, consisted of 15 women and 48 men; the mean age of the patients was 32.1 years. The time from injury varied from 4 to 124 months.

Outcome measures: Clinical assessment, D-dimer and venous duplex scan.

Results: The venous duplex scan revealed DVT in 5 of the 63 patients. The post-injury time in four of the patients varied between 4 and 5 months; one patient was 42 months post-injury.

Conclusion: DVT occurred in patients with chronic SCI, mainly by the 6th post injury month.

Keywords:

• Spinal cord injuries
• Venous thrombosis
• Paraplegia
• Tetraplegia
• Quadriplegia