Q. I recently hit my shin really hard, which produced a large bruise. Should I be worried about blood clots?
A. A recent study points to an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or a blood clot in the leg, in people who incur a minor leg injury. “We’ve all seen patients who develop a deep vein thrombosis after minor injuries,” says Leonardo Clavijo, M.D., director of vascular medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, “but we never had a study to support some of these clinical observations.” The study, by researchers at the Leiden Medical Center in the Netherlands, found that those with a predisposition to DVT—such as a family history—were especially vulnerable to forming a blood clot after a leg injury. While DVT affects one to two people per 1,000 each year, if left untreated, the clots can travel and cause major complications, including heart failure. “If you have prior DVT, a strong family history of blood clots and a minor injury accompained by symptoms that are unusual or a shortness of breath, [you] should be seen by a physician promptly,” says Clavijo.
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