Had my IVC filter put in!

Hi all! My RNY is in two days and I had an IVC filter put in through a vein in my neck on Thursday, as a preventative measure. It was not scary and did not hurt! If anyone else needs to have this done, do not worry at all! You are in a twilight zone and don't feel a thing. It's a little sore for the next 1.5 days but very manageable! 

Yep easy peasy, I had it done too just be sure to have it removed in a month or so because according to my surgeon it can also end up collecting clots and acting like a clot itself. He said too many people don't bother getting them out and end up with problems years out.

Some of them -- like mine -- are intended to be permanent, especially for people with a history of clots.  

As far as them collecting clots, that is what they are supposed to do... catch the clots before they can get to your lungs, heart, or brain.  So even if they are left in (whether intended to be permanent or not), if someone develops a clot that breaks loose, they are MUCH better off having an IVC filter catch it than having an aneurysm or a stroke!  I don't understand your doctor's comment at all, especially since the complication rate on them is quite small.

Lora

So, if the filter is permanently catching clots, what happens if it gets clogged?  Do they clean it out somehow?  I don't have to have one of these, I'm just curious.

It would be very rare for someone to continuously generate clots, let alone have enough loose clots (they usually stay attached within the smaller vein where they developed rather than flowing freely in the blood) that it would permanently or completely clog up the vein because the filter is catching them. Most people who are prone to clots (such as me), take anticoagulents (and sometimes other meds as well) to prevent the clots.  Even in a rare case like that, it would be much preferable to have to deal with captured clots in the filter than for someone to die from a clot to the brain, legs, or heart!

I imagine that IF the filter had trapped a significant number of clots they would hospitalize the person and put them on a "clot busting" drug like streptokinase to dissolve the clots.  They might also need to remove the filter or address the clots if they would not dissolve.  

I talked at length with the vascular surgeon who put my filter in (it was not for my RNY, but for my panniculectomy) about the risks of having a permanent filter and the information he gave me indicated that complications were quite rare.  He believed the benefits far, far outweighed the risks for anyone who has had multiple blood clots in the past, even if none of them had turned into pulmonary embolisms or such.

Lora