Patients at risk for blood clots who are unable to take anticoagulant medications often receive an inferior vena cava (IVC) filter for blood clots.

About six different companies manufacture and market a filter for blood clots. Each filter is shaped like an open-ended cage.

As blood clots try to travel from the legs to the lungs, the clots become trapped in the filter, where they break up and move on through the system. This keeps the clot from getting to the lungs were it can become a dangerous pulmonary embolism.

When a filter for blood clots is implanted, the patient is given a local anesthetic and sometimes, some sedation.

The surgeon makes a small incision and inserts the filter through a long thin catheter (tube) into a large vein in the neck or the groin. The filter is guided to the vena cava vein and is generally placed right below the kidneys. That is the best place to catch a clot before it moves to the upper body towards the lungs.

Only taking 20 to 30 minutes, the procedure might seem longer due to preparation and recovery time. Most people receive a filter for blood clots after they have already been admitted to the hospital.

Nearly 300,000 hospital patients die of pulmonary embolisms each year, which is a reason the IVC filters were such a heralded medical device when they were introduced in 1979.

Dangers of a Filter for Blood Clots

While obtaining a vena cava filter is recognized as a generally safe procedure, it does not come without risks.

Sometimes even patients who take blood thinners still develop clots and need IVC filters in addition to their medication. These patients have a higher risk of bleeding at the puncture site where the filter has been entered into the vein.

The filter for blood clots sometimes becomes completely clogged by a large clot becoming trapped in the filter. Sometimes a clot simply isn’t corralled by the filter, and it makes its way up towards the lungs.

Filter for Blood Clots Failures

Unfortunately, lawsuits have sprung up because the filters for blood clots have resulted in patient injuries and deaths.

Made of thin wires designed to capture blood clots, IVC filters have been known to break apart. When the tiny parts travel in the body, they can tear veins and puncture organs. Broken IVC filter parts have even punctured the heart.

If a part from an IVC filter lodges in an organ, a surgeon might elect to leave the part in place rather than perform a high-risk surgery to secure its removal.

In one case, an IVC filter was unable to stop a blood clot. The force of the blood clot being pushed by the person’s pumping blood allowed the filter to be pushed along as well, finally puncturing the heart. The patient died one week after she received the filter for blood clots.

While filters for blood clots can prevent pulmonary embolisms, these filters also can provide dangerous conditions if something goes awry.