Air travel and risk of venous thromboembolism

doi:10.1136/bmj.322.7295.1183/a

BMJ 2001;322:1183 ( 12 May )

Letters

Air travel and risk of venous thromboembolism

Passengers should reduce consumption of alcohol on flights

Pulmonary embolism after air travel may occur by chance alone

Passengers should reduce consumption of alcohol on flights

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Geroulakos,¹ like previous reviewers of the relation between air travel and venous thromboembolism,² did notmention the theoretical and experimental evidence of thrombogenesisin venous valve pockets that colleagues and I have published.³Modelled on one of the six possible permutations of Virchow'striad, our experiments produced experimental thrombi in venousvalve pockets for the first time since Virchow described themin 1858.⁴ The specific triad model was (1) interrupted circulationin venous valve pockets causing (2) hypoxaemic metabolic endothelialinjury and leading to (3) ectopic haemostatic plug formation (bloodmetamorphosis) in valvepockets.

Merely to move blood clotting from position 1 to position 3 in the triad sequence gives a new explanation for thrombogenesis.This suggests that thrombogenesis during long haul flights isattributable to individual passengers' behaviour $---$ specifically,taking an excess of drugs that suppress the central nervous system(alcohol, long acting tranquillisers, or other sedative drugswhich, . . . [Full text of this article]