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Deep Vein Thrombosis of the Upper ExtremityAka: 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

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD. This page was last revised before 5/10/08, prior to consistent tracking of revision date. This page was last published on 6/1/2008. Please send comments and questions to the editor. Contact information may be found on the page About the Family Practice Notebook. These pages are best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.