Thrombotic disorders of hemostasis in patients with deep vein thrombosis

For 22 months we investigated the hemostatic status of 93 inpatients (44 male, and 49 female, average age 54.6 years) with a phlebographically objectified deep venous thrombosis of the leg or iliac veins. Corresponding blood samples were taken before, during, and after therapy. In 58 (62.4%) patients we found several kinds of disorders of hemostasis. There were deficiencies of the protein C, protein S, factor XII, antithrombin III, and the thrombocytes function. In most cases there was a single acquired deficiency of one of these factors. Only in one patient (1.07%) could we verify an inherited deficiency of factor XII. The most frequent disorder was a protein C deficiency in 32 (34.4%) patients. In 44 (47%) operatively treated patients we had postoperative complications such as rethrombosis, phlegmasia coerulea dolens, or development of skin necrosis during anticoagulant therapy in 12 (27.3%) cases. In 10 (83%) of these patients with complications we had found preoperatively a disorder of hemostasis. The statistical correlation between a preoperatively measured deficiency of the protein C and the relapse of deep vein thrombosis was significant (p=0.0026).Presented at the 35th World Congress, International College of Angiology, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 1993