Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

General Information on Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a bleeding disorder. In DIC, excessive amounts of small blood clots form in the bloodstream and block smaller blood vessels causing the platelets and clotting factors needed to help control bleeding to deplete which in turn causes excessive bleeding. The clotting is usually caused by a substance that enters the blood for various reasons. Some of these reasons include diseases, surgery, injuries, snake bites, complications in childbirth, or not having a dead fetus removed soon enough. DIC may come on quickly and has the potential to become very severe very fast. The bleeding can be so severe that it may be completely uncontrollable.

Symptoms of Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

Some of the symptoms of disseminated intravascular coagulation may be:

Easily bleeding – ranging from bruises to uncontrollable bleeding
Shortness of breath – from lung damage
Small quantities when urinating – from kidney damage
Stroke – from brain damage

Treatments For Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

The treatment for disseminated intravascular coagulation is to treat the underlying cause. Due to the fact that DIC is the result of other problems, the symptoms of DIC completely subside when the underlying cause is fixed. In sudden DIC onsets of bleeding that is or may be life threatening, blood transfusions may be used to replace the factors that help aid in clotting blood. In the cases of DIC in which clotting is the problem, Heparin may be used to slow the clotting down.

Personal Experience

Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation - personal experiences