Procedure deemed unnecessary in most DVT patients

“The findings are also interesting because there is the suggestion that at least some patients may have benefited. Sorting that out is going to be very important.”

For now, pharmacomechanical thrombolysis should be reserved for use as a second-line treatment for some carefully selected patients who are experiencing particularly severe limitations of leg function from DVT and who are not responding to anticoagulation alone, Dr Vedantham added.

This research was sponsored by NHLBI. Additional funding was provided by Boston Scientific, Covidien (now Medtronic), and Genentech, which provided recombinant tissue plasminogen activator for the study. Compression stockings were donated by BSN Medical.