Doctor explains blood clot risks during air travel, prevention tips

(Aging Untold) — Long-distance travel can mean hours of sitting, which can increase the risk for blood clots. On flights, that risk can be up to three times higher.

While serious clots linked to flying are rare, doctors say it’s important to know risk factors, how to prevent problems and what warning signs to watch for.

Understanding pulmonary embolism

“These events after a long-haul travel are very, very infrequent,” Dr. Robert McBain, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist, said.

A pulmonary embolism happens when a clot called a deep vein thrombosis travels from an extremity, most often the leg, up through the inferior vena cava to the lungs, where it gets stuck in an artery, McBain said.

Small clots may not cause much trouble, but big ones can block blood flow from the right side of the heart, causing symptoms. In extreme cases, the abrupt onset of right heart failure can cause death.

“Most people will survive their pulmonary embolism. A very small percentage will have a fatality,” McBain said. “Because there is potential mortality associated with these events, we would want patients to be promptly evaluated so that prompt therapy can be initiated.”

Therapy involves short- and long-term blood thinners.

Risk factors

McBain said there’s no way to predict who will have a pulmonary embolism or when one might happen, but people are at increased risk after major surgery or trauma, if they have cancer, if they have a relative who has had a pulmonary embolism, if they’ve had one in the past, or after prolonged immobility, such as in a nursing home.

One-half of all cases happen without an explanation.

Three factors set up conditions for a blood clot, Dr. Rhea Rogers, a board-certified physician and Aging Untold expert, said.

• The first is slow blood flow.
• The second is an injury to the blood vessel, which allows platelets to plug it up and produce a clot.
• The third is a hypercoagulant state, meaning something is happening that allows blood to be thicker.

“You put those three things in movement and you can get a blood clot,” Rogers said.

Warning signs

Rogers said the warning signs people will experience include chest pain, shortness of breath, a rapid heart rate and leg swelling or pain, often in the calf.

Prevention tips

McBain said doctors sometimes give very high-risk individuals a preventive dose of blood thinners.

He recommends that people who are not at increased risk stay hydrated, stand up or walk the aisle every couple of hours, stretch legs while sitting and wear compression stockings.