Vascular medicine and osteopathic medicine: treating the whole patient.

Education and instruction in the care of the patient with peripheral vascular diseases is, at best, fragmented during the first years of medical training. Attention to the issues of peripheral arterial, venous, and lymphatic disorders deserves a more formal approach with respect to physician education, patient evaluation and treatment, knowledge and application of various diagnostic modalities, and involvement of our physician colleagues in complementary disciplines. The vascular medicine internist is an invaluable resource in these areas. The aging of our general population will lead to an increase in manifest peripheral vascular disease within our patient population. Having received additional comprehensive training in the management of the complex patient with peripheral vascular disease, the vascular medicine internist may serve as a complete resource for their care.

Acute upper extremity deep venous thrombosis: safety and effectiveness of superior vena caval filters.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of percutaneous filter placement in the superior vena cava for prevention of pulmonary embolism (PE) due to acute upper extremity deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in patients with contraindications to or unsuccessful anticoagulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-one patients with acute upper extremity DVT and contraindications to or unsuccessful anticoagulation underwent percutaneous placement of a superior vena caval filter for prevention of PE. Four types of filters were used. Follow-up chest radiographs were used to detect filter migration, dislodgment, and fracture. Placements of central venous and Swan-Ganz catheters after filter insertion were recorded. Patients were followed up clinically for evidence of superior vena cava syndrome and PE. Kaplan-Meier survival rates were determined. Follow-up was 1 day to 221 weeks. RESULTS: No complications such as filter migration, dislodgment, or fracture occurred (median follow-up, 12 weeks). No patients developed clinical evidence of PE due to upper extremity thrombosis or superior vena cava syndrome (median follow-up, 15 weeks). Catheters were placed subsequent to filter placement in 23 patients (56%) without complication. CONCLUSION: Percutaneous filter placement in the superior vena cava is a safe and effective method for preventing symptomatic PE due to acute upper extremity DVT in patients in whom therapeutic anticoagulation has failed or is contraindicated.