[Medical phlebitis. A rational approach of the etiological evaluation]

One-hundred and four records of ambulatory deep venous thrombosis were studied retrospectively to determine the usefulness of an aetiological evaluation based on a rational approach. Among these 104 patients, 27 were known to have a cancer at the time of admission, and 77 had a presumably idiopathic deep venous thrombosis. The discovery of 10 cancers in the second group (13 percent) confirmed that the aetiological research was useful. Statistical analysis of the two populations and the different parameters of the thrombus and its course failed to show any significant difference in the patients whose cancer was revealed. The aetiological evaluation pointing to the diagnosis was always simple and not very costly; it consisted of careful physical examination with vaginal and/or rectal palpation, standard laboratory tests, X-ray films of the chest and abdomino-pelvic ultrasonography. Although these cancers were at an advanced stage when discovered, the aetiological research was justified by the finding of a few tumours amenable to curative surgical treatment.