Superficial venous thrombosis: Single-center experience and current recommendations

Introduction: Superficial venous thrombosis (SVT) is an underestimated and underreported disorder. Till date, there are no Indian epidemiological studies which have looked at the community or hospital prevalence rate of SVT. Patients and Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done in the department of vascular surgery including all patients diagnosed and managed for SVT over the period of 2011-2018. All patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) were also screened for involvement of the superficial veins. The demographic data, imaging data, further management, and follow-up data were collected from the hospital records. The data were entered into EpiData software and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA), and data analysis was done in R (version 3.5.0) and Microsoft Excel. Results: There were a total of 119 patients between the ages of 16 and 76 years. There were 84 men and 35 women. The median age of the entire study population was 46 +/- 14.18 years. Eighty-one cases had only SVT, whereas 38 patients had both SVT and DVT together. 78 (65.5%) patients were diagnosed based on clinical presentation, whereas 41 (34.5%) patients were diagnosed on imaging done for other causes. In the patients diagnosed on clinical findings, 54 (69.2%) patients underwent a duplex ultrasound to rule out DVT. 77 (64.7%) patients were related to underlying varicose veins. 19% of patients had previous thromboembolic disease. The most common involvement was of the superficial veins in the patients who were clinically diagnosed. 54 (45.4%) patients received anticoagulation. Six patients had systemic venous thromboembolic complications. Conclusions: Anticoagulation should be the mainstay of treatment of patients with SVT. Prospective studies on superficial vein thrombosis are needed to assess and promote awareness of this condition in light of the current understanding of this potentially dangerous condition.