What is the most common cause of superior vena cava syndrome?
What is the most common cause of superior vena cava syndrome?
Who is at risk for SVCS? SVCS is most often seen in people with cancer. It’s most common with lung cancer or non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Far less often, it’s linked to other causes, such as infection or a blood clot in the SVC caused by an implanted medical device.
Which is an early manifestation of superior vena cava syndrome in a patient with cancer?
Superior vena cava syndrome consists of various symptoms due to compression of the SVC (Lepper et al., 2011). Early signs and symptoms include cough, dyspnea, hoarseness, chest pain, jugular vein distention, and edema of the hands, face, and/or neck.
What are the symptoms of inferior vena cava syndrome?
Inferior vena cava syndrome (IVCS) is characterized by tachycardia, hypotension, tachypnea, hypoxemia, and shortness of breath. The differential diagnosis of IVCS is broad, mainly because it is rarely ever diagnosed as a primary disease process.
Is superior vena cava syndrome a paraneoplastic syndrome?
Superior vena cava syndrome as a paraneoplastic manifestation of soft tissue sarcoma.
How is SVC syndrome treated?
The main treatment for SVCS is to treat the cancer that is causing it with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. However, other things can be done to alleviate the symptoms. Your doctor might prescribe corticosteroids to reduce swelling or diuretics to remove excess fluid from your body by increasing urination.
How do you test for superior vena cava syndrome?
How is SVCS diagnosed?
- X-rays of your chest or the vein. X-rays of a vein use dye to help the vein show up clearly.
- CT scan, also called computed tomography.
- MRI, also called magnetic resonance imaging.
- Ultrasound.
What does SVC syndrome feel like?
Dyspnea is the most common symptom, observed in 63% of patients with SVCS. Other symptoms include facial swelling, head fullness, cough, arm swelling, chest pain, dysphagia, orthopnea, distorted vision, hoarseness, stridor, headache, nasal stuffiness, nausea, pleural effusions, and light-headedness.
How common is SVC syndrome?
Superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome occurs in approximately 15,000 people in the United States each year (1). The syndrome was originally described as being secondary to an infection, such as tuberculosis, or a syphilitic aortic aneurysm (2–4).
What is supine hypotensive syndrome?
Supine hypotensive syndrome is characterized by severe supine symptoms and hypotension in late pregnancy, which compel the unconstrained subject to change position. Rarely, it may manifest even from the fifth month of pregnancy or postpartum, as well as in the pelvic tilt or sitting positions.
How is inferior vena cava syndrome treated?
The treatment of vena cava compression syndromes commonly involves stenting or radiation. Expandable metallic stents have been used to treat IVC compression caused by hepatic tumors [11]. Tumors that compress the SVC, such as lung cancer, are generally radiosensitive [12].
Why is superior vena cava syndrome and oncologic emergency?
The superior vena cava (SVC) is a large blood vessel that sends blood from the upper body and head to the heart. SVC syndrome happens when blood flow through the superior vena cava is blocked. SVC syndrome is an oncologic emergency, which is a serious health problem caused by the cancer itself or its treatment.
Can SVC syndrome be cured?
Outlook. Superior vena cava syndrome itself is very treatable, and symptoms are usually greatly improved within the first month of treatment. However, because the majority of cases are caused by cancer, the overall outlook will depend on the type and stage of the cancer involved.
What is superior vena cava syndrome (SVCS)?
Superior vena cava syndrome (SVCS) includes various clinical signs and symptoms due to external compression (or intrinsic obstruction) of the SVC itself or greater veins emptying into the SVC or the superior cavo-atrial junction, resulting in reduced blood flow.
What causes the superior vena cava to become blocked?
Less often, the superior vena cava can become blocked with a blood clot from within. As more invasive medical procedures are being performed on patients, this cause of superior vena cava syndrome is being seen more frequently.
What is the difference between the superior and inferior vena cava?
The superior vena cava returns blood from the upper body to the heart. The inferior vena cava returns the blood from the lower part of the body. The superior vena cava is thin-walled, and the blood is under low pressure. It lies near lymph nodes in the chest.
What is the pathophysiology of SVCs?
SVCS is caused by the partial blockage of the superior vena cava. This is the vein that carries blood from the head, neck, chest, and arms to the heart.
