Acute Medicine | Cardiovascular | Limb pain and swelling

Limb Pain and Swelling
Session Overview
Description
This session addresses the causes of swollen, painful limbs, with a particular focus on deep vein thrombosis. The assessment, investigations and management of deep vein thrombosis will be covered.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Divide causes of painful, swollen limbs into local, regional and systemic
• Make an initial clinical assessment of the risk of deep vein thrombosis and select appropriate investigations
• Outline treatment for deep vein thrombosis
• Suggest prevention measures for the long-term sequelae of deep vein thrombosis

Limb pain and swelling is seen frequently in patients admitted to hospital acutely. It carries a broad differential and requires careful clinical assessment to reach the correct diagnosis.

This session focuses mainly on deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT is commonly encountered on the Acute Medical take with an incidence of at least 1 in 1000. Pulmonary embolism (PE) and DVT are both manifestations of a single disease process, venous thromboembolism (VTE).