Our 23-year-old female patient with no significant past medical history presented to the hospital complaining of acute shortness of breath, abdominal pain, and severe left lower extremity pain. The patient was in her usual state of health until the evening of her symptoms, when she suddenly turned in her bed and began to experience numbness, tingling, and purplish discoloration of her left lower extremity. On arrival to the emergency department, the patient was in respiratory distress and had bilateral swelling of her lower extremities, the left side larger than the right. A bilateral lower extremity duplex ultrasound revealed a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in the left lower extremity, the popliteal, and the femoral veins. In addition a CT of the chest utilizing our pulmonary embolism protocol delineated two pulmonary emboli in the first order pulmonary arteries and multiple segmental emboli located in the right upper and right lower lobes. She was subsequently started on a heparin drip.\nThe patient denied any tobacco use, recent immobilization, or travel. She reported the use of an estrogen vaginal delivery device (ethinyl estradiol vaginal ring) for the previous 6 months. Her hypercoagulable workup was revealing for heterozygosity at C677T for factor V Leiden. It should be noted that heterozygous carriers of FVL have been shown to have an overall 3- to 7-fold increased risk of venous thrombosis, while homozygotes to C677T have a 50- to 100-fold increased risk. []\nDue to the acute presentation of her venous thromboembolism, a left pelvic and lower extremity venous thrombectomy was performed. This was followed by stenting of a popliteal venous occlusion, and subsequent thrombolysis with tissue plasminogen activator. Surprisingly, a left lower extremity venogram revealed bilateral inferior vena cavas.\nIn our patient, the left-sided duplicated IVC and iliac veins were found to be thrombosed. This was marked by the stippled appearance of the duplicated left IVC vessel seen in Figure . The decision was made to stent the duplicated IVC given the anatomic irregularity and increased risk of repeat thrombosis. Two wall stents (Figure ) were deployed at the proximal end at the level of the left sided (duplicated) IVC. Next a balloon was used to angioplasty the entire length of the stented segment of the duplicated IVC (Figure ). Figure depicts the duplicated left IVC with wall-stent draining into the left renal vein with a non-occlusive thrombus within it. The orthotopic IVC remained patent. The patient was kept on heparin for 24-hours and then started on Coumadin.
Our patient was an 18-year-old girl with recent onset right leg pain and swelling with extension to her inguinal area. She also had dyspnea with respiratory distress. At the time of presentation, she was ill and febrile. She also had pitting edema of right leg and significant size difference between circumferences of her two legs. On the day of admission, she suddenly presented with dyspnea and severe thoracic pain on the right side. All other physical examination was normal.\nShe had no predisposing factor for venous thrombosis. Besides, she had no known a history of DVT, clotting disorders, recurrent abortion, peripheral vascular disease, non-healing ulcerations on the extremities, cerebrovascular accidents or taking oral contraceptive pills.\nHer laboratory data showed only mild normochromic, normocytic anemia, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) to 75 (normal range less than 25) and CRP = 16 (normal less than 8). Other laboratory test including renal, electrolytes, liver, and urine analysis and culture were normal.\nColor duplex ultrasound study demonstrated deep venous thrombi in the right popliteal, superficial and common femoral veins, with external iliac vein.\nIn addition, hypercoagulable workup was revealed no abnormal finding and also negative for antiphospholipid syndrome and lupus anticoagulant antibodies.\nA multi-detector computed tomography (CT) pulmonary angiography of the chest defined pulmonary emboli in the territory of right main and segmental branch pulmonary artery and suggesting extensive infarction of the right middle pulmonary lobe. She was subsequently started on a low molecular weight heparin (Clexane®: 60 mg, every 12 h SC). Subsequently, CT of the abdomen and CT angiography with IV contrast injection carried out after the procedure confirmed duplication of the IVC []. Both two IVC originate in the pelvis, run parallel to each other, bordering the aorta and left-sided IVC drained into the left renal vein. There was no other pathologic finding in thoracic and abdominopelvic CT studying.\nAfter fully anticoagulated with low molecular weight heparin for 5 days and starting warfarin international normalized ratio (INR) range was between 2 and 3, she was discharged from hospital and was not symptomatic in her follow-up until next 3 months. According to the previous studies, for this patient we planned to continue anticoagulant therapy for 6 months.[]