SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs announced season-altering news Thursday when the team revealed that Victor Wembanyama, the team’s All-Star center and a Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner, had deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in his shoulder, ending his sophomore campaign.
As unfamiliar as the ailment may sound, however, experts say anyone can be susceptible to developing it–from everyday people to NBA stars.
“The sooner one is diagnosed and they start treatment, the better the outcomes are always going to be,” said Dr. John Hogg, a radiologist who founded the Medical Vein Clinic in San Antonio.
DVT is more commonly referred to as blood clots. According to the Cleveland Clinic, one to three in every 1,000 adults develop the condition in the U.S., making it the third most-common vascular disease behind heart attacks and strokes.
Here’s what else to know about deep vein thrombosis.
What causes it?
According to Hogg, blood clots typically develop out of any combination of three factors: Damage to blood vessels, sometimes from surgery; a lack of movement or a long period of time without movement; genetics or other outside contribution factors like dehydration or hormone replacement.
“All these factors build up and suddenly that blood’s not moving fast, and slow-moving blood tends to clot,” Hogg said.
A cancer diagnosis, obesity, age and estrogen use can exacerbate the risk for DTV, the Centers for Disease Control says. It’s a common issue, one that even affects young athletes.
Heaviness, pain or swelling in the limbs are the tell-tale indicators of DVT or blood clotting, Hogg says.
The key sign, however, is when someone is experiencing those issues on just one side.
“When one’s swollen and different, that’s concerning,” he added. “Pain, heaviness, did this fall during a period of inactivity—that sort of thing.”
The CDC says DVT usually affects the lower extremities. Having it in the shoulder makes for a “little more complicated” situation, Hogg said, in that those areas are closer to the heart and lungs. And the CDC says about 30% of those who develop DVT are at risk of getting it again.
But as with other DVT diagnoses, the earlier it’s spotted and the earlier treatment begins, the better.
How is it treated?
As soon as DVT is diagnosed, Hogg says, time is of the essence.
“We start them on blood thinner right there in the clinic,” he said. “It’s very important to start them right away, and they go back to doing their normal lifestyle.”
Patients are cautioned against heavy physical activities in the early stages of their treatment, and eventually they might start wearing compression sleeves on their arms or legs to get the blood moving faster, essentially speeding up their recovery.
“The more that blood turns over, the more that blood thinner – I call it the Drano – it’s going by there to dissolve that area and open it up faster.”
When it comes to athletes, doctors say DVT can be caused by overhead overuse—think all the dunking, passing and shot-blocking an NBA center is asked to do.
“It’s not just rest it and it’ll get better, unfortunately,” said Dr. Michael Peck, with the Vascular Institute of San Antonio. “It’s probably that he needs the clot to be managed and then whatever caused the clot to be managed.”
The blood thinner can be injectable or orally administered to clear the clot, Peck says.
“But then we need to figure out the structural issue,” which he adds could mean surgery.
What are the long-term effects?
The Spurs likely ticked off that vital first step of catching Wembanyama’s DVT early.
Those who let it go untreated for too long, however, face the possibility of “a lifetime of problems in that limb,” Hogg says.
“The sooner one is diagnosed with a blood clot and they start treatment, the better the outcomes are always going to be,” he said. “If blood clots go on for days or weeks or even months sometimes, it starts to cause scarring and the vessels kind of get narrowed down.”