Question: How long does it take a blood clot to dissolve? I've had a total of seven.

Dr. Hibberd's Answer:

Blood clots form for various reasons, and their re-absorption will vary depending upon their size, location, treatment, and whether or not the underlying condition that predisposed you to clot formation has been corrected.

Clots may form as a result of trauma, injury, infection, coagulation disorder, or surgery. The secret to predicting its complication rate and resolution time is the clot's location. If it's outside of a blood vessel or inside a small vein and the patient is given appropriate clot prevention treatment, most small clots will resorb over two to three weeks. However, some larger deep-vein clots may take several more weeks, often three to six weeks after treatment is begun to open back up.

Larger clots may take months, and sometimes if they are left untreated too long, clots can remain, clotted and occluding the vein indefinitely! Blood clots in deep veins are always a concern since they could migrate and break off to the heart and lungs and cause death. If you think you may have a deep-vein clot, see your doctor without delay!

Recurring blood clots scream at me that you need to add some preventive measures to your management program. Superficial clots are usually of much less concern than deep clots that have the potential to break off and run to the lung as a pulmonary embolus.

Please see your doctor. We have a wide variety of choices for clot management, and we can save many people from significant disability, and perhaps even from premature heart failure and untimely death. Management of recurring clots is definitely one of those conditions where an ounce of prevention is far better than the pound of cure necessary when consultation and intervention are delayed.