Deep vein thrombosis when flying – who gets it and how you can prevent it

Experts call it “economy class syndrome” – but it could actually occur to anyone in any class of aircraft.

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurs when blood clots in a number of veins.

It can occur at any time, but people on long-haul flights are at higher risk because they sit there for long periods, says Dr. Pinakin V. Parekh, a consultant cardiologist on the Harley Street Heart and Vascular Centre in Singapore.

“In theory, passengers in the better classes – business class, first class – have more room to move around and stretch their legs,” he told CNBC Travel. “So it's all about space on the plane.”

However, Parekh emphasizes that the so-called “economy class syndrome” doesn’t matter where the traveler sits or how often she or he flies.

“I've had patients who even traveled in business class and developed DVT,” he said. Plus, “if you decide not to fly, it may be the only flight of your life.”

Deep vein thrombosis typically occurs within the legs. Symptoms include pain, swelling, changes in skin color and a sense of heat, but in line with the Mayo Clinic, some people haven’t any signs in any respect.

According to the medical center, people who find themselves chubby, over 60, taking the pill, undergoing hormone substitute therapy or smoking have the next risk of developing deep vein thrombosis.

But flying carries its own risks, said Parekh.

“Every 5,000 flights, a patient may develop deep vein thrombosis simply due to the risk of air travel,” he said.

The risk is bigger on long-haul flights, but deep vein thrombosis can even occur on shorter flights, he said.

“Eight hours of flight time used to be considered the benchmark,” he said, “but some data suggest that even four hours is now considered sufficiently long.”

Alok Tapadia, a 52-year-old former banking businessman, said he suffered a deep vein thrombosis consequently of a four-hour flight from Singapore to Hong Kong.

He said he plays badminton thrice per week and knew something was incorrect when he became out of breath while climbing stairs after arriving in Hong Kong.

“One of the escalators stopped working,” he said, so he took the steps. “I had to stop for a while and wonder what had happened to me.”

It was only when he returned to Singapore, still out of breath and with an elevated pulse, that he finally went for a check-up.

He said doctors told him a blood clot had traveled to the pulmonary artery that connects his heart to his lungs.

He said his first scan showed enlargement of the center, which occurs when the center pumps too hard. A second scan resulted in Tapadia being immediately admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit, he said.

Doctors found a “massive” lack of oxygen and his lungs were completely blocked, he said.

Doctors said the situation was “critical because the pressure on the heart was so great that cardiac arrest or a more critical stage could have occurred at any moment,” Tapadia said.

Blood thinners didn’t dissolve the clot quickly enough, he said.

So his doctors eventually resorted to cardiac catheterization, by which a catheter is passed through his blood vessels near his heart to dissolve the blood clot from the within, Tapadia said.

Deep vein thrombosis can result in pulmonary embolism, a potentially life-threatening complication that happens when a blood clot breaks loose and becomes lodged in a blood vessel within the lungs. Mayo Clinic.

If a clot travels to the lungs, symptoms equivalent to shortness of breath and chest pain can occur, Parekh said.

There isn’t any option to completely eliminate the danger of deep vein thrombosis, says Parekh. But there are methods to scale back the risks when flying, he says.

The Mayo Clinic recommends drinking loads of water, standing and walking across the plane in the course of the flight, circling your ankles while sitting, and wearing support stockings.

Parekh has a straightforward tip for passengers: select an aisle seat.

It “encourages you to get up and go much more easily, because when you're at the back of the line you're always afraid of disturbing the guy. [next to you]”, says Parekh.

More than a yr later, Tapadia said he has returned to his normal routine, which incorporates traveling and playing badminton, but he has modified a few of his travel habits, starting on the airport.

Now he walks through the airport as an alternative of using the moving walkway, he said. He also walks up and down the aisles in the course of the flight, he said.

He advises travelers to concentrate to their health and possible warning signs.

“An episode like this really shocks you,” he said.