Abdominal Skin Necrosis after Enoxaparin Treatment

Haddad Maruan, Nierenberg Gabriel, Falah Mazen, Rosenberg Nahum

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Orthopedic Surgery Department, Rambam-Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.

DOI: 10.4236/ojcd.2014.41010                

Abstract

Subcutaneous low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) injection is a prophylactic treatment for deep vein thrombosis after surgery in lower limb before the patient is fully ambulated. This treatment is usually safe. One of the major and rare complications of the LMWH injection is thrombocytopenia, which is usually self-limiting. We present a rare case of patient with thrombocytopenia, induced by subcutaneous injection of LMWH (enoxaparin) that was complicated with a large hematoma at the injection site with subsequential skin necrosis, sepsis with fatal outcome. We would like to emphasize this rare complication of the common prophylactic treatment by LMWH in order to pursue this diagnosis when similar cutaneous manifestation might appear in patients who receive prophylactic treatment with LMWH.

Keywords

Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia; Skin Necrosis; Heparin; Low Molecular Weight Heparin

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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