Deep venous thromboembolism in patients undergoing inguinal lymph node dissection for melanoma

Deep venous thromboembolism (DVT) was studied in 44 patients with clinical Stage I, II, and III melanoma undergoing staging and therapeutic inguinal lymph node dissection. The ability of two noninvasive methods of surveillance, the phleborheograph (PRG) and the 125I fibrinogen scan to detect deep venous thrombosis was determined by comparison with prospective bilateral lower extremity venograms. In addition, the therapeutic impact, both beneficial and detrimental, of low dose heparin, 5000 units administered subcutaneously two hours prior to and every eight hours after operation was determined in a double blind study. The sensitivity of the PRG and 125I fibrinogen scan were both 20%. There were five deep venous thrombi, and two pulmonary emboli for a combined incidence of DVT of 13.6% for the entire patient population. However, there was no significant difference in the incidence of DVT between the two groups. The heparin-treated patients had an increased total volume (796 +/- 516 versus 388 +/- 208 ml; p less than 0.05), and duration of wound drainage (9 +/- 4 versus 13 +/- 6 days; p less than 0.05).