People with chronic venous insufficiency, or CVI, are at high risk for blood clots that travel to vital organs, such as the brain, heart, and lungs. If you have been diagnosed with blood clots in the lower extremities, your vein specialist may use special drugs to limit these blockages safely.
Let’s talk about this chronic/acute circulatory condition, what drugs help save lives, and where you can go in Tampa, FL, for outstanding vein blockage treatment.
Why Do Vein Blockages Happen?
Your veins are the blood vessels that carry deoxygenated blood back to the heart and lungs. The walls of the vessels are sturdy but non-elastic, unlike their oxygen-carrying counterparts, the arteries.
Veins of all sizes and locations have internal check valves to keep blood from collecting in the lower extremities. If someone has chronic venous insufficiency or CVI, these valves are dysfunctional; blood pools and damages the vessels, making them twisted, enlarged, and discolored.
The most common types of CVI are varicose and spider veins. Left diagnosed and treated by today’s state of the art methods and technologies, these veins can form hazardous blood clots.
Blood clots are the direct result of a poor venous function. Factors such as smoking, pregnancy, obesity, sedentary habits, etc., set the stage for this health problem.
Is Surgery the Only Solution for Blood Clots in the Lower Extremities?
No! Surgery is not the only solution for blood clots and their associated vein blockages. However, in some severe cases, or when less invasive treatments prove ineffective, surgical thrombectomy, or clot removal, is best.
For many vein treatment patients, special drugs prevent clots and thin the blood so that the blockages related to the clots are avoided or actually break up, or “bust” clots, making them dissolve harmlessly. Your vein doctor will determine the treatment plan best for your unique health needs, lifestyle, age, etc.
What Drugs Does the Vein Specialist Use to Treat Blockages?
If drugs are your best treatment for vein blockages, your physician may recommend these categories of pharmaceuticals.
Anticoagulants Or Blood Thinners
These drugs do not actually dissolve dangerous blood clots, but they limit the blood clotting factors your body makes in response to injury or disease. The most notable clotting factors are thrombin, Vitamin K, and fibrin.
Your vein doctor may prescribe these blood-thinning drugs if he feels you are at risk for developing these blockages or if you already have. Blood thinners may be administered by injection, by IV, or in pill form. The most familiar and often-used anticoagulants are heparin and warfarin.
Thrombolytics, or “Clot-busters”
These amazing drugs save lives because they destroy blood clots in vein blockages. Some medications are oral–i.e., taken in pill form.
Other clot-busters may be administered through a vein in the arm (intravenously), while others are delivered via a thin catheter inserted directly into the affected blood vessel. Eminase and Retavase are just two of the state-of-the-art thrombolytics used to treat blockages and their related heart attacks or strokes.
Vein Blockage Treatments in Tampa, FL
At Edward G. Mackay and Associates, your vein health is our top priority. If you wish to know more about how to avoid vein blockages or how our board-certified vascular surgeon treats them, call us today for an in-person consultation: (727) 527-2888, or request your visit online. We know you’ll benefit from the pioneering treatments offered at our state-of-the-art clinics in Largo, St. Petersburg, or Palm Harbor, FL.