Thrombectomy, Lysis, or Heparin Treatment: Concurrent Therapies of Deep Vein Thrombosis: Therapy and Experimental Studies

Patients with deep vein thrombosis may be treated in three different ways: by surgical thrombectomy, medical lysis, or simple heparinization.1-3 Usually, a certain form of standardization is used for each of the three different therapies. Despite this fact, the question remains: which is the best form of therapy? In the literature, numerous studies dealing with the problem of the therapy of deep vein thrombosis can be found. A correct evaluation, however, appears extremely difficult because most studies were designed retrospec-tively, mostly addressing only one form of therapy,3"5 and because results are hardly comparable, since no unique criteria for evaluation of the success of therapy were applied. Many investigators simply relied on the patients' subjective complaints. Others additionally took morpho-logic criteria into consideration (mostly phlebographic results). Only a few considered functional parameters as important. Therefore, the aim of our study was, to evaluate the validity of each of the three therapies in a global concept. The study was designed prospectively using an ambitious protocol and considering the following three parameters: 1. Clinical history and examination of the patient 2. Morphologic status (such as phlebography) 3. Functional status (such as phlebodynamometry