Hillary Clinton hospitalized: blood clot

[Dr Mordrid]

She's been off her feet for weeks, which puts even younger people at risk for throwing a blood clot in/from the legs. These clots can then move to the lungs and cause serious trouble including death. Many clinicians put such patients on daily Lovenox (a blood thinner) injections while they're bedridden and for a couple of weeks after after discharge (it's patient/caregiver injectable.) Thing here is we don't really know where the clot is yet.

Lovenox is often contraindicated by other meds or certain conditions like a closed head injury. There are cases where such drugs turned a slow leak in/around the brain into a gusher. Not good. Without the Lovenox etc. you get the higher odds of a clot forming elsewhere.

She lost the coin flip.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/12/hillary-clinton-hospitalized-with-blood-clot/

[KRSESQ]

Wow, she really must have banged her head when she fell. Hope she responds well to treatment.

[Dr Mordrid]

Right cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, a clot in one of the major venous channels between the brain and skull - in the pic below her clot is in the large vessel at the bottom.

Generally, 57% recover, 8.5% die and the rest have some degree of impairment. Specifically, those over 35-40 have much higher levels of death or impairment.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/blogEntry?id=18103426&sid=77&cid=77

[Brian Ellis]

Heparin would be the preferred treatment here for a cerebral thrombus because a haemorrhage can be more easily controlled with protamine. Lovenox is preferred for treating clots in leg/lung, where a site haemorrhage would create less risk of long-term impairment. If it did start bleeding significantly, emergency surgery would be necessary. Hope she does not have a pacemaker, as MRI would not be possible.