Does Vancomycin Cause Blood Clots? The Difference Between Local and Systemic Risks
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4 min read
Recent prospective studies on intravenous vancomycin have shown it is inevitably associated with asymptomatic venous thrombosis at the infusion site when administered peripherally, regardless of dilution. While this means the medication can cause a type of local blood clot known as thrombophlebitis, this is a distinct phenomenon from systemic clotting disorders like DVT. A rare, opposing effect is vancomycin-induced thrombocytopenia (VIT), which actually increases the risk of bleeding.