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How common is deep vein thrombosis?
It's hard to know exactly how many people get deep vein thrombosis (DVT). This is because many people don't know they have this condition, so they never get diagnosed.

  • One large summary of the research (called a systematic review) found that every year about 1 in 5,000 people are diagnosed with DVT.1
  • The risk is even greater among older people. About 2 in 1,000 people age 70 are diagnosed with DVT every year. Most of the research has been done in Sweden and the United States.1
  • In the United States, between 60,000 and 200,000 people die each year from a blood clot that has traveled from a deep vein in their leg to their lung (this is called a pulmonary embolism). That's more than the number who die each year from car accidents.2
  • About 1 in 1,000 pregnant women get DVT or a pulmonary embolism. And about 2 in 1,000 women get these conditions after giving birth.3
  • About 1 in 10 people would get DVT after a major operation if they didn't have treatment to prevent it. And as many as 8 in 10 would possibly get it after having a hip or a knee replacement operation.4



Sources for the information on this page:
  1. Fowkes FJI, Price JF, Fowkes FGR, et al. Incidence of diagnosed deep vein thrombosis in the general population: systematic review. European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. 2003; 25: 1-5.
  2. American Public Health Association. Deep vein thrombosis: advancing awareness to protect patient lives. February 2003. White paper from the Public Health Leadership Conference on Deep-Vein Thrombosis. Available at http://www.apha.org (accessed on 17 March 2008).
  3. Maternal and Neonatal Haemostasis Working Party of the Haemostasis and Thrombosis Task Force. Guidelines on the prevention, investigation and management of thrombosis associated with pregnancy. Journal of Clinical Pathology. 1993; 46: 489-496. 8331168
  4. Verstraete M. Prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism. BMJ. 1997; 314: 123-125. 9006474
This information was last updated in Jul 25, 2008