Dick Cheney's Deep Venous Thrombosis

Look for a pair of these compression stockings on Vice President Dick Cheney's leg soon. He was reportedly diagnosed with a deep venous thrombosis (DVT) today and will likely be treated with low molecular weight heparin (enoxaparin) shots twice daily for several days, followed by warfarin therapy. His family has been understandably tight-lipped about these details of his therapy.

Given his history of a weakened heart muscle from coronary artery disease, multiple vein harvestings to procure conduit for his bypasses (yes, he's had more than one), the repair of a popliteal artery aneurism behind his knee, coupled with his significant travel history, he really was a set-up for this occurence. If he was my patient, I'm not sure I'd just treat this for "a couple of months" with anticoagulants as the article suggests because I doubt his risk factors for DVT will subside. Others agree.

But spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride's statement that "He'll maintain his regular schedule. He feels fine." might not be such bad advice after all, since there have been some studies that have suggested that early ambulation speeds recovery in patients with DVT.

-Wes

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