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General measures

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

The patient should be confined to bed for the first 24 hours with the foot of the bed elevated by 15-30 degrees.

Pain and swelling should be alleviated by full length graduated compression stockings and analgesics.

  • there is evidence that the daily use of compression stockings reduced the risk of any and severe post-thrombotic syndrome (by about 55% (when compared with no intervention or placebo stockings) )(1)

The patient should then be mobilised and encouraged to perform regular leg exercises.

Post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS) is a long-term complication of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) characterised by chronic pain, swelling and skin changes in the affected limb.

Reference:

  1. Kolbach DN et al. Non-pharmaceutical measures for prevention of post-thrombotic syndrome. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2004; (1): CD004174.

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