[Venous thromboembolic accidents during idiopathic hyperlipaemia]

The authors report 30 cases of venous thromboembolic accidents during familial hyperlipaemia. This type of accident, never previously described, calls for the following comments: (1) there was a striking number of recurrences in some patients although none of the usual contributing factors of thromboembolic disease were present; (2) the accidents only occurred in patients with endogenous hypertriglyceridemia (mixed type IIb hyperlipaemia, type IV endogenous hypertriglyceridaemia); (3) the accidents ceased completely after the metabolic disorder was corrected. In the prevention of post-operative thromboembolic disease more attention than before should be paid to patients with endogenous triglyceridaemia.