Deep venous thrombosis of the lower limb: no difference in duration of symptoms between proximal and distal disease.

In deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of the lower limb, the location of the thrombosis determines how great the risk of pulmonary embolism is. We set out to determine whether the duration of lower limb DVT symptoms could be a predictive factor for the location of the thrombosis. We retrospectively collected a series of 100 lower limb phlebography examinations that were positive for DVT and divided the group into 2 subgroups proximal disease (ie, above the knee) or distal disease (ie, below the knee). The subgroups were then plotted against the individual duration of the symptoms. Of the 100 DVTs, 58% were proximal, while 42% were distal. The average duration of the symptoms was 6.3 days for patients with proximal disease and 6.2 days for patients with distal disease. We, therefore, found no difference in symptom duration between patients with proximal and distal lower limb DVT. This may imply that the duration of the DVT symptoms does not represent a predictive factor for DVT-caused pulmonary embolism.