Chronic disseminated intravascular coagulation after surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysm: clinical and haemostatic response to dalteparin.

A 77-year-old man developed chronic disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) after surgical repair of a large infrarenal aortic aneurysm. Self-administered subcutaneous dalteparin therapy (5000 units o.d.) led to rapid relief of symptoms and sustained improvements in his platelet count and fibrinogen level; activation of coagulation and fibrinolysis appeared to be relatively unaffected. Long-term treatment with low-molecular-weight heparin can provide good symptomatic control of chronic DIC associated with abdominal aortic aneurysm.