Iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis: Conventional therapy versus lysis and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting

Objective To compare conventional treatment (heparin and warfarin) of iliofemoral ven ous thrombosis with multimodality treatment (lysis and stenting). Summary Background Data Several studies have reported on conventional therapy for iliofemoral venou s thrombosis with disappointing results. However, more recent studies have reported better results with multimodality treatment. Methods Fifty-one consecutive patients with extensive iliofemoral venous thrombosis were treated during a 10-year period. if there were no contraindications, patients were given the option to choose between conventional therapy (grou p 1) and multimodality therapy (group 2). The multimodality treatment strat egy included catheter-directed lysis followed by percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty (PTA) and stenting for residual iliac stenoses. All pat ients underwent routine venous duplex imaging at 30 days, 3 months, 6 month s, and every 6 months thereafter. Results There were 33 patients in group 1 and 18 patients in group 2. Demog raphic and clinical characteristics were comparable for both groups. initia l lysis was achieved in 16 of 18 patients (89%) in group 2. Ten of 18 patie nts in group 2 had residual stenosis after lysis (8 primary and 2 secondary to malignancy), and they were treated with PTA/stenting with an initial su ccess rate of 90%. Two patients in group 1 (6%) had a symptomatic pulmonary embolism (none in group 2). At 30 days, venous patency and symptom resolut ion were achieved in 1 of 33 patients (3%) in group 1 versus 15 of 18 (83%) in group 2. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed primary iliofemoral venous patenc y rates at 1, 3, and 5 years of 24%, 18%, and 18% and 83%, 69%, and 69% for groups 1 and 2, respectively. Long-term symptom resolution was achieved in 10 of 33 patients (30%) in group 1 versus 14 of 18(78%) in group 2. Kaplan -Meier life table analysis showed similar survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 yea rs of 100%, 93%, and 85% for group 1 and 100%, 93%, and 81% for group 2. Conclusions Lysis/stenting treatment was more effective than conventional t reatment in patients with iliofemoral vein thrombosis.