Deep Venous Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism in Patients with Acute Spinal Cord Injury

The occurrence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) was studied in the series of 23 consecutive patients with acute spinal cord injury and 14 immobilized patients with spinal fractures without paralysis. The incidence of DVT in paralyzed patients was 100% as detected by the 125I-labeled fibrinogen test and confirmed by contrast venography, and 64% as detected by repeated clinical examinations and confirmed by contrast venography. The respective incidence of DVT in nonparalyzed patients with spinal fractures was 0%. The diagnosis of DVT was reached earlier with the radiofibrinogen test than with the clinical followup (5 days vs. 25 days). Two of the 23 paralyzed patients (9%) developed nonfatal clinical pulmonary embolism (PE). There were no differences in the values of routine coagulation tests. The result justifies prophylactic anticoagulant therapy in all cases of spinal cord injury during the acute post-traumatic phase.