Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence and predisposing

factors of lower limb deep venous thrombosis (D VT) in cirrhotic patients, and

to evaluate the use of anticoagulation therapy (AT) with low molecular weight

heparin (LMWH) and warfarin in management of DVT in these patients. The

study was conducted on 622 cirrhotic patients from whom the incidence of

lower limb DVT was obtained. Six cirrhotic patients with lower limb DVT

and twenty four cirrhotic controls were fully investigated and compared. The

patients and controls were age, sex and Child-Pugh score matched. All the

patients were assessed according to a protocol including prothrombin time,

prothrombin concentration, international normalized ratio (INR), protein C,

protein S, antithrombin Ill, serum bilirubin, serum albumin, platelet counts,

HBs-Ag and HCV antibody. Results revealed that the prevalence of D VT in

our cirrhotic patients was 0.96%. The use of AT in cirrhotic patients' needs

meticulous follow up for early management of any complications and the

screening for esophageal varices with prophylactic band ligation if risk signs

were present is of great importance.