Twelve years experience of vena cava filtration

Fourteen patients have required vena caval interruption in a period of 12 years at St Thomas' Hospital. Half of these patients had an underlying malignancy. None of these patients have had clinical or lung scan evidence of recurrent emboli. There were no deaths related to filter insertion and no patient died of a pulmonary embolism. Vena caval interruption is a procedure that is rarely necessary but may be valuable in carefully selected patients.