Following resection of the left colon, a 67-year-old obese woman develops left-sided leg edema due to deep-vein thrombosis. She is placed on anticoagulants, but after 2 weeks of warfarin (Coumadin), she develops a pulmonary embolus with slight hypoxemia. What should the next step in management involve?
High-Yield Explanation
In general, failure (or inability) to continue anticoagulants is an indication to insert an IVC filter to minimize the possibility of serious and possibly fatal pulmonary embolus.