How is a pulmonary embolism treated?
Pulmonary embolisms are treated now very effectively. We have many ways of treating them to include Heparin, which is a medication that is given sub-containously or it can be given by I.V. and it takes care of the initial problem of clotting and then at the same time you start the patient on rat poison . Rat poison is coumadin and it was initially developed to as a rat poison but soon came into the practice of medicane to make blood thinner so that clots won't form . So that initially you take care of the clots that are already there with the Heparin and make sure that no further clots will break loose and go into lung and your run that for about seven to ten days ruffly . In the mean time it takes about a week or so for the Coumadin levels to build up so that the body is antiquagulating properly so that it won't quagulate the blood . Then you send the patient home for three to four months on the rat poison on the Coumadin and The rat poison, or Coumadin has to be monitored carefully because there is alot of things that in your diet , certain medications , that will either make the Coumadin less quagulating or it can over quagulate becuase of medication and food that your eating . you have to track it very closely . What your really doing is giving the patient in the short term course of medication that will give them Hemophilia. You give them another form of disease to help them correct this one disease then they come off of it. If they continue to throw clots into their lung you may have to put a filter into the interior venacava that will filter clots that would be up coming ,but thats uncommon. Some patients who have clotting disorders that are permanent they may have to take Coumadin for the rest of their lives , but that's unusual also.
