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Posted: 27-May-2009 19:59 hrs
A file photo of an IRM machine at a hospital in 2007. Special stockings designed to prevent dangerous blood clots among stroke patients are no better than routine care, according to a study published on Wednesday by The Lancet.
Special stockings designed to prevent dangerous blood clots among stroke patients are no better than routine care, according to a study published on Wednesday by The Lancet.
Millions of these thigh-length, graduated stockings are given out each year to stroke victims in the belief the garment curbs the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a potentially life-threatening clot that forms in the leg.
DVT is notorious in so-called economy-class syndrome, in which airline passengers, hunched in cramped seating for long flights, develop the clot because of poor blood circulation in their legs.
But the condition can occur in any position where an individual is sedentary for long periods, and is particularly a risk for hospitalised stroke patients.
British doctors carried out a study among 2,500 patients who had been admitted to hospitals in Australia, Britain and Italy within a week of a stroke and were bedridden.
Half of the patients received normal care only for hospitalised stroke victims, and the other half received normal care plus the compression stockings. The patients were twice checked for clots by ultrasound scanner.
In the stockings group, 10.0 percent suffered a DVT, while in the normal-care group the figure was 10.5 percent, a difference that was statistically insignificant.
In addition, five times as many patients wearing the stockings suffered skin breaks, blisters and skin ulcers as their counterparts.
"Abandoning this ineffective and sometimes uncomfortable treatment will free up significant health resources -- both funding and nurse time -- which might be better used to help stroke patients," said lead researcher Martin Dennis of the University of Edinburgh. — AFP
From TODAYOnline.com, Health – Wednesday, 27-May-2009; see the source article here.
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Posted: 27-May-2009 19:59 hrs
A file photo of an IRM machine at a hospital in 2007. Special stockings designed to prevent dangerous blood clots among stroke patients are no better than routine care, according to a study published on Wednesday by The Lancet. Special stockings designed to prevent dangerous blood clots among stroke patients are no better than routine care, according to a study published on Wednesday by The Lancet.
Millions of these thigh-length, graduated stockings are given out each year to stroke victims in the belief the garment curbs the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a potentially life-threatening clot that forms in the leg.
DVT is notorious in so-called economy-class syndrome, in which airline passengers, hunched in cramped seating for long flights, develop the clot because of poor blood circulation in their legs.
But the condition can occur in any position where an individual is sedentary for long periods, and is particularly a risk for hospitalised stroke patients.
British doctors carried out a study among 2,500 patients who had been admitted to hospitals in Australia, Britain and Italy within a week of a stroke and were bedridden.
Half of the patients received normal care only for hospitalised stroke victims, and the other half received normal care plus the compression stockings. The patients were twice checked for clots by ultrasound scanner.
In the stockings group, 10.0 percent suffered a DVT, while in the normal-care group the figure was 10.5 percent, a difference that was statistically insignificant.
In addition, five times as many patients wearing the stockings suffered skin breaks, blisters and skin ulcers as their counterparts.
"Abandoning this ineffective and sometimes uncomfortable treatment will free up significant health resources -- both funding and nurse time -- which might be better used to help stroke patients," said lead researcher Martin Dennis of the University of Edinburgh. — AFP
From TODAYOnline.com, Health – Wednesday, 27-May-2009; see the source article here.
----------
Looking for safe and sound but effective alternatives?
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