Science Letters

Efficacy of Modified Pressure Cuff for Thrombolysis of Lower Limb Deep Vein Thrombus in Comparison with Traditional Sphygmomanometer Pressure Cuff

Mustafa Razi, Yan Li, Xu He, Mohammed Jameeluddin Ahmed, Janesya Sutedjo, Murtuza Razi, Jianping Gu*

Department of Interventional Radiology, Nanjing First Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Chang Le Road 68, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Abstract

The thrombolytic process for lower limb deep vein thrombosis (DVT) via locoregional infusion route involves infusion of a thrombolytic through the regional veins like the dorsalis pedis vein and great saphenous vein in combination with compression pressure; so as to temporarily occlude the superficial veins of the region for the duration of the infusion process to direct the majority of drugs to the deep veins, leading to increase in the efficacy of the treatment. In this study, 80 patients with known cases of lower limb DVT were selected and randomly divided into two groups of 40 each. One group, the experimental group, received the compression via the modified pressure cuff, and the second group, the control group had compression via a sphygmomanometer cuff. Both the groups received urokinase as the thrombolytic drug with the same dose being administered daily through the dorsalis pedis vein. The pressure required to compress the superficial veins and keep the deep veins patent was measured via digital subtraction angiography (DSA) at the time of patient's venography, which was lower in experimental group patients. The data obtained from the study showed that the patients with the modified pressure cuff had a higher degree of thrombus clearance rate than patients with traditional sphygmomanometer cuff. The study showed an increase in efficacy of the antithrombotic therapy for lower limb DVT when used in combination with the modified pressure cuff. Further work needs to be done to better understand the efficiency and the shortcomings of the regime, as this study was a single center study.