Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsPrescriptionsSurgeriesOver-the-Counter TherapiesFrequently Asked QuestionsNext in Blood Clots GuideWhat Are Blood Clots?
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Prescriptions
Surgeries
Over-the-Counter Therapies
Frequently Asked Questions
Next in Blood Clots Guide
There are three general categories of drugs that are commonly used topreventor treatblood clots(thrombosis): anticoagulants, fibrinolytics, and antiplatelet medications. Some of these (Pradaxa, Angiomax, ReoPro) may be unfamiliar, while others (warfarin, heparin, aspirin) are generally household names.
They have different mechanisms of action, different risks, and are used under different circumstances. One potentialside effectcommon to all of them is excessive bleeding, so all of these drugs must be used with appropriate precautions.
While drugs are the mainstay of treatment for blood clots, certain patients may require a surgical procedure to prevent them.
Verywell / Laura Porter
If you have or are suspected tohave a blood clot, you’ll likely leave your healthcare professional’s office with a prescription. What you take will depend on several factors, including your overall health, the probablecause of the clot, its severity, and more.
Anticoagulant Drugs
Anticoagulant drugs inhibit one or more of theclotting factors, a group of blood proteins that are responsible for blood clotting.
These drugs include:
Warfarin:Until recently, warfarin was the only orally administered anticoagulant drug available.
The biggest problem with warfarin has been getting the dosage just right, which can be difficult for healthcare professionals and inconvenient for patients.
When you start taking it, the dosage must be stabilized over a period of weeks, and frequent blood tests (INR blood tests) are necessary to assure this. Even after stabilization, INR tests need to repeat periodically and one’s dosage of warfarin often requires re-adjustment.
Anti-Platelet Drugs
Three groups of drugs are used to reduce the “stickiness” of platelets, the tiny blood elements that form the nucleus of a blood clot. By inhibiting the ability of platelets to clump together, anti-platelet drugs inhibit blood clotting.These drugs are most effective in preventing abnormal blood clots from forming in arteries and are much less effective at preventingthrombosis in the veins.
Thrombolytic Drugs
These powerful drugs, also known as fibrinolytic agents or “clot busters,” are given intravenously to dissolve blood clots that are in the process of forming. For the most part, their use is limited to patients who are within the first few hours of an acute heart attack or stroke in an attempt to re-open a blocked artery and prevent permanent tissue damage.
These drugs can be tricky to use and they carry a substantial risk of bleeding complications.
However, in the right circumstances, these medications can prevent death or disability from a heart attack or stroke.
Thrombolytic drugs include:
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Sometimes a blood clot in the arms or legs (calleddeep vein thrombosis, or DVT) can travel to the lungs, forming a blood clot called apulmonary embolism(PE).
For patients who have DVT and for some reason cannot take the available medications, othertreatmentis available. Surgeons can implant a small metal device called aninferior vena cava filter (IVC)that traps large clot fragments and prevents them from traveling through the vena cava (a large vein in the abdomen that brings blood from the lower body back to the heart).
These filters can remain in place permanently or be removed, depending on the individual patient’s situation.
If you have experienced or are at risk of a blood clot in your legs, your healthcare provider may recommend you wear special elastic socks calledcompression stockings.These can help increase blood flow out of the legs and back to the heart, and reduce pain and swelling in the legs or arms due to damaged blood vessels, a condition known as post-thrombotic syndrome.
Compression stockings are available at drugstores and medical supply stores. Talk with your healthcare provider about which length (knee-high or thigh-high) is best for you.
Frequently Asked QuestionsIf you have a blood clot in your leg, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), your healthcare professional will likely give you an anticoagulant drug, like warfarin orheparinor one of the new class of blood thinners, which thin your blood and make it harder for clots to form. If your clot is more severe, you may be directed to take thrombolytic drugs, known as clot busters, or surgery may be necessary.It can take weeks or months for aclotto disappear, depending on the size, location, and severity of the clot. Treatment with anticoagulant drugs is usually recommended for three months, though it may be longer if you’re at high risk for developing future clots.After treatment with anticoagulant medications, which don’t break up clots on their own but do prevent them from getting larger, the body will likely start to dissolve the clot itself over a period of weeks and months.In some cases, yes, blood clots can be managed at home. Your healthcare professional may recommend that you wearcompression stockings, which can help increase blood flow to the heart and reduce swelling. But if you have any symptoms of a new blood clot, be sure to seek immediate medical treatment. Don’t attempt to treat it yourself at home.
If you have a blood clot in your leg, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), your healthcare professional will likely give you an anticoagulant drug, like warfarin orheparinor one of the new class of blood thinners, which thin your blood and make it harder for clots to form. If your clot is more severe, you may be directed to take thrombolytic drugs, known as clot busters, or surgery may be necessary.
It can take weeks or months for aclotto disappear, depending on the size, location, and severity of the clot. Treatment with anticoagulant drugs is usually recommended for three months, though it may be longer if you’re at high risk for developing future clots.
After treatment with anticoagulant medications, which don’t break up clots on their own but do prevent them from getting larger, the body will likely start to dissolve the clot itself over a period of weeks and months.
In some cases, yes, blood clots can be managed at home. Your healthcare professional may recommend that you wearcompression stockings, which can help increase blood flow to the heart and reduce swelling. But if you have any symptoms of a new blood clot, be sure to seek immediate medical treatment. Don’t attempt to treat it yourself at home.
How to Prevent Blood Clots
6 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Mekaj YH, Mekaj AY, Duci SB, Miftari EI.New oral anticoagulants: Their advantages and disadvantages compared with vitamin K antagonists in the prevention and treatment of patients with thromboembolic events.Ther Clin Risk Manag.2015;11:967-77. doi:10.2147/TCRM.S84210Texas Heart Institute.Antiplatelet therapy.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placement.The North American Thrombosis Forum.Under pressure: Compression stockings 101.Waldron B, Moll S.A patient’s guide to recovery after deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.Circulation. 2014 Apr 29;129(17):e477-9. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.006285Harvard University. Harvard Health Blog.Leg clots (aka deep vein thrombosis): An immediate and long-term health hazard.Additional ReadingAmerican College of Radiology and Radiology Society of North America.IVC filters.Franchini M, Mannucci PM.New anticoagulants in internal medicine: An update.European Journal of Internal Medicine. 2010;21(5):466-467. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2010.06.006Kearon C, Akl EA, Ornelas J, et al.Antithrombotic therapy for VTE disease.Chest. 2016;149(2):315-352. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2015.11.026National Blood Clot Alliance.Blood clot treatment.
6 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Mekaj YH, Mekaj AY, Duci SB, Miftari EI.New oral anticoagulants: Their advantages and disadvantages compared with vitamin K antagonists in the prevention and treatment of patients with thromboembolic events.Ther Clin Risk Manag.2015;11:967-77. doi:10.2147/TCRM.S84210Texas Heart Institute.Antiplatelet therapy.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placement.The North American Thrombosis Forum.Under pressure: Compression stockings 101.Waldron B, Moll S.A patient’s guide to recovery after deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.Circulation. 2014 Apr 29;129(17):e477-9. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.006285Harvard University. Harvard Health Blog.Leg clots (aka deep vein thrombosis): An immediate and long-term health hazard.Additional ReadingAmerican College of Radiology and Radiology Society of North America.IVC filters.Franchini M, Mannucci PM.New anticoagulants in internal medicine: An update.European Journal of Internal Medicine. 2010;21(5):466-467. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2010.06.006Kearon C, Akl EA, Ornelas J, et al.Antithrombotic therapy for VTE disease.Chest. 2016;149(2):315-352. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2015.11.026National Blood Clot Alliance.Blood clot treatment.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Mekaj YH, Mekaj AY, Duci SB, Miftari EI.New oral anticoagulants: Their advantages and disadvantages compared with vitamin K antagonists in the prevention and treatment of patients with thromboembolic events.Ther Clin Risk Manag.2015;11:967-77. doi:10.2147/TCRM.S84210Texas Heart Institute.Antiplatelet therapy.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placement.The North American Thrombosis Forum.Under pressure: Compression stockings 101.Waldron B, Moll S.A patient’s guide to recovery after deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.Circulation. 2014 Apr 29;129(17):e477-9. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.006285Harvard University. Harvard Health Blog.Leg clots (aka deep vein thrombosis): An immediate and long-term health hazard.
Mekaj YH, Mekaj AY, Duci SB, Miftari EI.New oral anticoagulants: Their advantages and disadvantages compared with vitamin K antagonists in the prevention and treatment of patients with thromboembolic events.Ther Clin Risk Manag.2015;11:967-77. doi:10.2147/TCRM.S84210
Texas Heart Institute.Antiplatelet therapy.
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placement.
The North American Thrombosis Forum.Under pressure: Compression stockings 101.
Waldron B, Moll S.A patient’s guide to recovery after deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.Circulation. 2014 Apr 29;129(17):e477-9. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.006285
Harvard University. Harvard Health Blog.Leg clots (aka deep vein thrombosis): An immediate and long-term health hazard.
American College of Radiology and Radiology Society of North America.IVC filters.Franchini M, Mannucci PM.New anticoagulants in internal medicine: An update.European Journal of Internal Medicine. 2010;21(5):466-467. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2010.06.006Kearon C, Akl EA, Ornelas J, et al.Antithrombotic therapy for VTE disease.Chest. 2016;149(2):315-352. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2015.11.026National Blood Clot Alliance.Blood clot treatment.
American College of Radiology and Radiology Society of North America.IVC filters.
Franchini M, Mannucci PM.New anticoagulants in internal medicine: An update.European Journal of Internal Medicine. 2010;21(5):466-467. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2010.06.006
Kearon C, Akl EA, Ornelas J, et al.Antithrombotic therapy for VTE disease.Chest. 2016;149(2):315-352. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2015.11.026
National Blood Clot Alliance.Blood clot treatment.
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