embolism treatment

embolism treatment


 Treatment of ETV
The main objective of anticoagulant treatment for thrombosis and pulmonary embolism is to prevent the formation of new thrombi and, at the same time, to cause hemorrhages as a consequence

The treatment of thrombosis does not differ from the treatment of pulmonary embolism, since both situations are manifestations of the same disease, VTE. It consists in the administration of anticoagulant treatment for at least three months.
When we treat a patient with ETV, the thrombus is not always eliminated completely. What usually happens is that it shrinks in size and gradually heals, so that the vein where it formed or the pulmonary artery in which it lodged will end up recovering almost completely its habitual flow.
The treatment of patients with VTE is done with the administration of anticoagulant drugs. They are medicines with which we look for the blood to be more liquid so that the thrombi stop growing and breaking (if they break, pulmonary embolism occurs). With this treatment the thrombi gradually harden, reduce their size, retract and become small scars.
This is how anticoagulant treatment works

Anticoagulants allow to stabilize the thrombi and prevent the appearance of embolisms in the lung, but for this same effect they can also cause hemorrhages.
When doctors prescribe anticoagulant treatment, we try to minimize the risk of the thrombus growing or breaking (and going to the lung), but at the same time not increasing the risk of bleeding. This balance is sometimes very difficult to achieve.
Hemorrhage is the weak point of anticoagulant treatment, which is why in daily actions such as shaving or brushing teeth we can bleed, and during menstruation the bleeding can be greater if we receive anticoagulants.
We can also bleed against small blows or cuts, so we advise patients that while the anticoagulant treatment lasts, refrain from contact sports (soccer, rugby, mountain biking, skiing, etc), because a blow that otherwise only It would produce a hematoma without major importance, in an anticoagulated patient it could become a serious hemorrhage. We also advise you to be careful with the risks of cutting or pricking yourself (in the kitchen, on the construction site, etc).
In order to have the adequate anticoagulant dose under control, it is necessary to go to the specialist doctor and follow his recommendations.
Both the diagnosis of VTE and the start of treatment are made in the hospital. At first doctors administer heparin injections, but when the patient goes home we try to replace the injections with pills: they are the K antivitamins, among which the best known is acenocoumarol (marketed as Sintrom®).
Recently we also prescribed the new oral anticoagulants, but only in the countries where its use is approved and paid by the public system (this is not the case in Spain).