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Air travel and the risk of thromboembolism.
Intern Emerg Med. 2011 Apr; 6(2):113-6.IE

Abstract

Almost two billion people use commercial aircraft annually. Long-haul flights are taken by over 300 million people. A serious complication of long-distance travel (or prolonged time of flight) is thromboembolism. The real incidence of the problem is difficult to evaluate since there is no consensus about the diagnostic tests or limitation of time after landing connected to the VTE complication. A direct relation between VTE incidence and long-distance flights has been documented. The risk for DVT is 3-12% in a long-haul flight. The pathophysiologic changes that increase VTE risk at flight are stasis (sitting in crowded condition), hypoxia in the airplane cabin, and dehydration. Individual risk factors for air travel-related VTE include age over 40 years, gender (female), women who use oral contraceptives, varicose veins in lower limbs, obesity and genetic thrombophilia. Prevention measures include environmental protection such as keeping the pressure inside the airplane cabinet in hypobaric condition, avoiding dehydration and prolonged sitting. For individuals at increased risk, venous blood stasis can be reduced by wearing elastic stockings and prophylactic use of low-molecular-weight heparin.

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Publisher Full Text (DOI)

Authors+Show Affiliations

Gavish I
Thrombosis and Haemostasis Unit, Department of Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Rambam Health Care Campus, POB 9602, Haifa, 31096, Israel. i_gavish@rambam.health.gov.il
Brenner B
No affiliation info available

MeSH

AircraftAnticoagulantsEnvironmental ExposureFluid TherapyGlobal HealthHeparin, Low-Molecular-WeightHumansIsraelMotor ActivityRisk FactorsSedentary BehaviorTime FactorsTravelVenous ThromboembolismVenous ThrombosisWater-Electrolyte Balance

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Review

Language

eng

PubMed ID

21057984

Citation

Gavish, Israel, and Benjamin Brenner. "Air Travel and the Risk of Thromboembolism." Internal and Emergency Medicine, vol. 6, no. 2, 2011, pp. 113-6.
Gavish I, Brenner B. Air travel and the risk of thromboembolism. Intern Emerg Med. 2011;6(2):113-6.
Gavish, I., & Brenner, B. (2011). Air travel and the risk of thromboembolism. Internal and Emergency Medicine, 6(2), 113-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-010-0474-6
Gavish I, Brenner B. Air Travel and the Risk of Thromboembolism. Intern Emerg Med. 2011;6(2):113-6. PubMed PMID: 21057984.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Air travel and the risk of thromboembolism. AU - Gavish,Israel, AU - Brenner,Benjamin, Y1 - 2010/11/06/ PY - 2009/09/17/received PY - 2010/10/20/accepted PY - 2010/11/9/entrez PY - 2010/11/9/pubmed PY - 2011/9/15/medline SP - 113 EP - 6 JF - Internal and emergency medicine JO - Intern Emerg Med VL - 6 IS - 2 N2 - Almost two billion people use commercial aircraft annually. Long-haul flights are taken by over 300 million people. A serious complication of long-distance travel (or prolonged time of flight) is thromboembolism. The real incidence of the problem is difficult to evaluate since there is no consensus about the diagnostic tests or limitation of time after landing connected to the VTE complication. A direct relation between VTE incidence and long-distance flights has been documented. The risk for DVT is 3-12% in a long-haul flight. The pathophysiologic changes that increase VTE risk at flight are stasis (sitting in crowded condition), hypoxia in the airplane cabin, and dehydration. Individual risk factors for air travel-related VTE include age over 40 years, gender (female), women who use oral contraceptives, varicose veins in lower limbs, obesity and genetic thrombophilia. Prevention measures include environmental protection such as keeping the pressure inside the airplane cabinet in hypobaric condition, avoiding dehydration and prolonged sitting. For individuals at increased risk, venous blood stasis can be reduced by wearing elastic stockings and prophylactic use of low-molecular-weight heparin. SN - 1970-9366 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/21057984/full_citation L2 - https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11739-010-0474-6 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -