Angiology: Open Access
Open Access
ISSN: 2329-9495
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2329-9495
+44 1478 350008
Walid M Gamal and Mohammed M Wahman
Objective: To detect the incidence and frequency of vascular events as deep venous thrombosis (DVT), venous thromboembolism (VTE) and arterial thrombosis in cancer patients admitted to Qena University Hospital.
Patients and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 2500 cancer patients from July 2013 to January 2017 and patients were classified into two groups, the venous group and the arterial group according to patient clinical presentation. These patients with VTE were treated with injectable enoxaparin 1 mg/kg/day for 5-7 days, followed by warfarin 4-6 months or longer and in those with arterial thrombosis causing leg ischemia, trial surgical thrombectomy was done in 2 patients and 2 have undergone percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and 1 has undergone surgical bypass but soon thrombosed on day 10th postoperative, about 6 patients have undergone major amputation, the remaining 4 patients with arterial thrombosis died within treatment course.
Results: Out of 2500 cancer patients admissions, 645 patients (representing 25.8% of total admissions) were found to have different vascular events. Age distribution was 5-60 years, 439 were females and 206 male (female to male ratio was 2:1). Fifty two patients had haematological tumors while 593 patients had solid organ tumors. Seventy five patients were found to have arterial event (about 11.6%), while 570 cancer patients (88.37%) had venous event (with significant difference, as p value less than 0.0001). Significant relation was found between incidence of vascular events and surgery followed by chemotherapy where p value was<0.0001 while with radiotherapy it was non-significant p value>0.0001 (0.161).
Conclusion: DVT/VTE occurs frequently in patients with malignancy. All cancer patients should be regularly assessed for risk of DVT/VTE as a routine procedure for hospital attendance. Acute arterial thrombosis although rare, in the presence of active malignancy carries a very bad prognosis.