Inferior Vena Cava Filter Placement in Deep Vein Thrombosis

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a serious disease which causes life-threatening pulmonary embolism and chronic venous insufficiency. In order to prevent pulmonary embolism, inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placement is commonly performed nowadays. We carried out this study to analyze the patterns of the indications for IVC filter placement, the complications associated with procedure, and the follow-up results. METHOD: We treated 42 patients with acute DVT between September 2001 and November 2002 at Gil Medical Center. Our subjects included 10 patients who underwent IVC filter placement during the same period. Duplex sonography and CT venography were performed in all cases. The filter was placed by one interventional radiologist just after checking the nonselective venography. The patients were followed monthly with a physical examination. Plain abdominal film was checked every 3 months, and CT venography every 6 months. RESULT: The mean age was 55.6 years (range 35~72) and the male-to-female ratio was 1:4. The associated diseases were advanced cancer in 3 cases, intracranial hemorrhage in 2 and spinal cord injury and ankylosis of the hip joint in 1. There were 8 cases of hypercoagulable states; 7 of protein S deficiency, 3 of protein C deficiency and 1 of antithrombin III deficiency. Indications for filter insertion were a contraindication to anticoagulation in 5 cases, recurrent pulmonary embolism in 2, floating IVC thrombosis in 2, complication of anticoagulation in 1, prophylactic use before catheter-directed thrombolysis in 1, and quadriplegia in 1. Four Greenfield filters and six TrapEase filters were used. Filters were deployed at infrarenal IVC in 8 cases and suprarenal IVC in 2 cases. There were no major complications related to the procedure. Late complications were not detected during the 7-month follow-up (range 2~16 months). CONCLUSION: We performed 10 IVC filter placements for therapeutic purpose without any serious complications. A wider range of indications, including prophylactic use, might be considered in the future practice for DVT.