Scuba Diving After a Blood Clot

Q:  My fiance had a long blood clot in his upper thigh last year and was hospitalized and took medication to dissolve it. The treatment was successful, and now, this year, he wants to go deep-sea diving! I think it's a bad idea...what do you think?

A:  I was starting to answer your question myself when I realized that a colleague whose office is right next to mine is the perfect person to address this. Geoffrey C. Lamb, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has a special interest in the prevention and management of blood clots and is also an experienced scuba diver! This is what he has to say.

"A blood clot in the legs, known as a deep venous thrombosis, is a dangerous problem and it seems a bit scary to follow this experience by participating in a potentially dangerous activity such as scuba diving. However, once the treatment for the blood clot is completed and your fiance is back to his normal activities, scuba diving, by itself, is not going to make it any more likely that your fiance will have another clot. In fact the use of a wet suit and the slow rhythmic leg motion could actually protect against blood clots in the leg.

On the other hand, there are other factors which might play a role in this decision. If your fiance is still taking an anticoagulant to treat the clot, such as warfarin, he is at risk for bleeding with even minor injuries. Bumps, scrapes and cuts are common when diving and many dive outfits discourage patients on these "blood thinners" from diving.

Another significant consideration has to do with how he is getting to the place he wants to dive. There are not a lot of attractive dive sites in the Wisconsin area and if he is thinking of diving in the Caribbean, Florida or even places more exotic it means that he may have a long airplane ride ahead of him. In an individual who has already had a blood clot this could put him at high risk for a recurrence.

Finally, depending on how old he is (less than 40?) and how he developed the clot in the first place, he may have an inherited disorder which might make him more likely to develop a blood clot than the average man his age. Regardless, I would recommend that he talk to his regular physician before embarking on any long trips or participating in any activity that puts him at risk for injury."

"Dear Doctor" is a compilation of patient questions answered by doctors from the Medical College of Wisconsin.