What Are My Options to Resolve a Blood Clot If I Can't Take Blood Thinners?

Your legs are under a lot of pressure — literally. Over time, this can catch up with you in the form of blood clots in your legs. While these clots can develop for a number of reasons, it’s important to diagnose them and get proper treatment.

Doing so restores normal blood flow and prevents the clot from traveling to a part of your body where it could cause serious damage. Namely, you don’t want the clot to travel up to your lungs, where it could cause a pulmonary embolism. 

If you’ve noticed swelling in your legs, take it seriously. It could be a sign of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a condition resulting from a blood clot in your leg. 

The expert providers at Vascular & Interventional Associates offer diagnostic ultrasound to our patients throughout northern Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. This allows us to see what’s going on in your legs, pinpointing the clot so we can tailor a treatment plan for you.

Blood thinners are a common approach to prevent clots from growing. If you have a clot and can’t take blood thinners, we explore other treatment options with you. These include:

Inferior vena cava (IVC) filter 

This option doesn’t treat the blood clot directly but instead ensures that it stays in your legs rather than moving up to your lungs. Your surgeon places the IVC filter into your vein above the clot, allowing blood to flow freely but blocking the clot from upward movement.

That doesn’t mean the clot stays in your leg forever. Your blood naturally contains anticoagulants. Over time, they dissolve the blood clot. 

As a result, the filter doesn’t have to become a permanent part of your body. In fact, leaving it in place can cause complications over time. Once the risk with the blood clot passes, our team of IVC filter removal specialists can get the filter out using minimally invasive surgical techniques. 

Thrombectomy

This procedure allows us to physically remove the clot from the affected vein. Guided by an X-ray, we use a catheter to go into your vein and take out the blood clot, resuming normal blood flow and ensuring that the clot can’t travel to your lungs. 

We can perform this procedure through a keyhole incision in your skin. That means no open surgery — or the associated downtime — required to break up your clot and alleviate your DVT. 

Stent placement

Once the clot is gone, you want to do what you can to make sure it doesn’t come back. To that end, we can place these tiny mesh tubes in your vein to keep it open, preventing future clotting.

If you have a blood clot but can’t take blood thinners, you still have several treatment options for DVT. To find out what approach is best for you, call our office in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, or request an appointment online today.