Prevention of Venous Thrombosis After Permanent Transvenous Leads Implantation

Venous lesions following cardiac devices implantation are a common complication of transvenous access that may cause disease manifestations and difficulties during reoperations. These lesions tend to develop early, and their incidence decreases gradually within 6 months after device implantation. Ventricular dysfunction and previous transvenous temporary leads ipsilateral to the permanent implant are risk factors identified in a previous study performed at our institution and other risk factors have been reported recently.The usefulness of prophylactic therapeutic strategies to prevent these complications, however,remains unknown. This randomized trial examined the effects of warfarin in the prevention of these complications in high-risk patients. After device implantation, patients were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or warfarin. Periodical clinical and laboratorial evaluations were performed to anticoagulant management. Following the six-month period, every patient was submitted to a digital subtraction venography.