Suggest Treatment For Blood Clot In Leg

Posted on Sun, 4 Jan 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 4 Jan 2015 Answered on

Mon, 2 Feb 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi Dr. Rynne, my husband had a blood clot in his leg approx. 8 years ago and at that time was told by his doctor that he just had superficial vein problems in his legs. His doctor told him that compression socks would make it all better. Well after 8 years of wearing the compression socks this is what his legs look like. Do you have any idea what could cause his legs to swell so bad and look so terrible? Thank you

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ivan Romich (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
hi and welcome to HCM

Detailed Answer:
this is so called hypostatic dematitis which is seen in venous insufficiency or chronic deep venous thrombosis. socks just prevents deep venous thrombosis but it has limited purpose and oin most cases it wont stop skin changes and legs swelling. he must do doppler ultrasound to verify venous blood flow, thrombus formation and arterial blood flow. if there is insuficiency of femoropopliteal junction and probably is, then he should have surgical procedure called vein stripping and microphlebectomia which can be done with lasers in some centres. also, he should consider certain medicines that cause blood thinning. Wish you good health. feel free to ask. Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar