The doctor spoke about the insidiousness and dangers of a blood clot breaking off

The worst thing in this situation is that the disease is asymptomatic, and then strikes on the spot

The diagnosis of a blood clot has caused the sudden death of a number of famous people in recent days. A detached blood clot can happen to anyone, quite suddenly and out of the blue. Is it possible to prevent the development of killer blood clots, and how to detect them before it’s too late, MK found out.

As vascular surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences Maxim Vikentyev told MK, blood clots are understood as blood clots that accumulate in any part of the cardiovascular system (vessels, cavities of the heart). The danger is that at any moment part of the blood clot can break off and, along with the blood flow, enter the aorta: this will cause a myocardial infarction. The clot can also get into the brain artery – in this case there will be an ischemic stroke. If it rushes into the intestines, necrosis of its tissues will develop, and if it enters the vessels of the extremities, gangrene will develop. A blood clot that develops in the veins of the legs can cause blockage of the pulmonary arteries and death.

Thromboembolic complications are not so rare. According to some data, in EU countries they become victims of twice as many people as victims of car accidents, breast cancer, prostate cancer and AIDS combined.

A blood clot can develop in any person – young and old, healthy and those with a bunch of chronic diseases. The most catastrophic thing in this situation is that the disease is asymptomatic, and then, as they say, hits on the spot. And yet there are risk groups that are more at risk from such a scenario than others. These are patients who have been on bed rest for a long time; those who have recently undergone surgery (including abortion) or trauma; those who fly often and for long periods of time on airplanes. In addition, the risk group includes people prone to physical inactivity, those who have recently had the flu or Covid, as well as those who drink little water. Women taking oral contraceptives and obese people are also at risk of thrombotic complications. Well, the hereditary factor also plays a role – there are congenital thrombophilias. It should also be taken into account that driving a car and taking certain medications also help slow blood flow.

Unfortunately, in the initial stages, thrombosis is asymptomatic – not only the patients themselves, but even doctors cannot suspect something is wrong. A blood clot can be detected through a test called Dopplerography of the blood vessels in the legs. However, the doctor with whom the MK columnist spoke said that there was a case not so long ago: a woman died from a blood clot that broke away just a day after such a study, which did not find anything.

And yet, as a surgeon who wished to remain anonymous told MK, the probability that a healthy young man, not burdened by family heredity, suddenly dies of a heart attack (myocardial infarction) is approximately one in a million: “Death from a detached blood clot or myocardial infarction is approximately the same cause of death. If we talk about pulmonary embolism (PE), then it rarely occurs out of the blue. But PE can cause death in patients with purulent inflammatory processes, which are often complications of surgery, especially surgery in cancer patients. This allows “surgeons from God” to hide the high mortality rate after their operations. They say, I performed an excellent operation, but the patient died from PE, although PE occurred against the background of peritonitis, which developed from insufficiency of the sutures of the esophagogastric or intestinal anastomosis. the source of pulmonary embolism are blood clots in the deep veins of the pelvis (especially in long-term patients), in sedentary and overweight people. “Subcutaneous varicose veins of the legs are more often a scare for patients when persuading them to undergo surgery.”

By what signs can you suspect you have a blood clot? Warning symptoms include swelling of the legs and pain, but they appear already in advanced stages of the disease. And even then not always: in many cases the disease is asymptomatic until the appearance of serious complications such as pulmonary embolism. Therefore, vascular surgeons believe that it is much more effective to prevent thrombosis in order to prevent the development of a tragic ending.

As Dr. Vikentyev notes, the prevention of blood clots fully fits into the concept of a healthy lifestyle: you need to devote proper time to physical activity, walk more often and do 30-minute exercises at least twice a week: “The most useful physical exercises for the prevention of blood clots are scissors, swings legs, bicycle. In addition, if you lead a sedentary lifestyle, for example, work in an office, try to raise your legs up whenever possible to speed up the flow of blood. It is no coincidence that Americans put their legs on the table – it seems uncivilized to us, but from a medical point of view this is very beneficial for your eyesight. If you have a long flight, try to drink a glass of water every hour of the flight, this helps thin the blood. Some doctors recommend taking half an aspirin tablet before the flight, but recent studies have shown that this measure has no effect. Those Anyone who has recently undergone surgery has probably received recommendations from their attending physician on wearing compression stockings; be sure to follow them. Patients who already have problems are often prescribed angiocoagulants and antiplatelet agents to prevent thrombus formation. Well, if suddenly you suddenly have pain in your leg, swelling, which is also accompanied by shortness of breath or chest pain, seek help immediately.”