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Deep Vein Thrombosis of the Upper Extremity

Aka: Deep Vein Thrombosis of the Upper Extremity, Upper Extremity DVT

See Also
1. Deep Vein Thrombosis
Causes
1. Central Venous Catheter (common)
2. External Vein Compression (Effort Thrombosis)
  1. Athletes with muscle hypertrophy
3. Idiopathic (rare)
  1. Evaluate for occult cancer
  2. Consider evaluation for Hypercoagulable state
Symptoms
1. Shoulder or Neck Pain
2. Edema of the hand or arm
Signs
1. Arm with palpable cord
2. Supraclavicular fullness
3. Cyanosis of extremity
4. Venous distention
  1. Superficial vein distention
  2. Jugular Venous Distention
Differential Diagnosis
1. Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
Radiology
1. Duplex Ultrasound of upper extremity
Management
1. Anticoagulation with Warfarin (Coumadin)
  1. Low Molecular Weight Heparin until INR therapeutic
2. Consider catheter directed Thrombolysis
Complications
1. Pulmonary Embolism (33% of cases)
2. Superior Vena Cava Syndrome
References
1. Joffe (2002) Circulation 106:1874-80

Family Practice Notebook

Patients should address specific medical concerns with their physicians.

Although access to this page is not restricted, the information found here is intended for use by medical providers.

This page was written by Scott Moses, MD, last revised on 10/21/2007 and last published on 5/17/2012.

This is one of 5740 pages in the Family Practice Notebook