Plantar Vein Thrombosis due to Busy Night Duty on Intensive Care Unit

Geiger, Carolin; Rademacher, Antje; Chappell, Daniel; Sadeghi-Azandaryani, Mojtaba and Heyn, Jens (2011): Plantar Vein Thrombosis due to Busy Night Duty on Intensive Care Unit. In: Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis, Vol. 17, No. 2: pp. 232-234

Abstract

A 32-year-old woman with severe foot pain came to our emergency department after a busy night duty in hospital followed by an extended sleep period. Physical examination revealed a discrete swelling of the medial aspect of the right foot and a painful plantar arch during digital examination. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with intravenous gadolinium showed filling efects in the lateral plantar vein. Doppler sonography displayed noncompressible structures in the plantar veins without flow signals, suggesting a plantar vein thrombosis. Therapy was initiated with low-molecular-weight heparin in combination with customized elastic bandages for the lower leg. Follow-up sonography 6 weeks later showed complete patency of the plantar veins. To our knowledge, we present the first case of isolated plantar vein thrombosis independent of trauma, surgery, or malignant disease, most probably caused by a busy night duty on the intensive care unit (ICU) followed by a prolonged sleeping period.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Keywords: plantar vein thrombosis, MRI, sonography
• Faculties: Medicine
• Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• Alliance/National Licence: This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
• Language: English