Air travel poses no significant threat to cardiovascular health for most patients, according to media outlets this week. So what does this mean for sunseekers preparing to jet off on their summer holidays when it comes to preventing a deep vein thrombosis (DVT)?

The headlines spring from new guidance, published in Heart, from the Working Group of the British Cardiac Society (BCS).

The guidance follows a House of Lords Science and Technology Committee report in 2007, which found that evidence on whether to use aspirin to prevent DVT was contradictory. According to the Lords, 20 per cent of long-haul passengers were taking aspirin, despite experts branding it a “relatively ineffective intervention”.

The BCS says the absolute risk of getting a venous thromboembolism for flights longer than four hours is about one in 6,000. However, the guidance says this is about the same as the risk of travelling by car, bus or train over a similar period.

So should aspirin be used as prophylaxis against DVT? The BCS guidance is categorical: aspirin is not recommended. According to one study, aspirin just served to give 13 per cent of participants gastrointestinal upsets.

That said, the guidance does recommend compression socks for patients at moderate risk. This is in line with a Cochrane review published in January.

The meta analysis looked at 10 randomised controlled trials of the socks, and found 50 of the 2,637 flyers in trials developed a symptomless DVT – three wore socks, 47 didn’t.

Boiling it down, the BCS advice is that patients who have no history of DVT, no surgery in the past month and no known risk factor, should just keep mobile and well hydrated, avoiding alcohol, caffeine and hypnotics.

Patients with a previous DVT, surgery in the preceding two months, thrombophilia, who are pregnant or are obese, should use compression socks, but otherwise the advice remains the same. It’s only patients with surgery within four weeks or a previous DVT and a risk factor (including cancer) who need to take precautions, although some (such as those in casts) will need to take specialist advice.

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