Stockings don't help stroke patients, study finds

Commonly used to prevent blood clots, items may actually cause problems

updated 9:47 a.m. ET May 27, 2009

LONDON - A new study says special stockings commonly given to stroke patients to prevent blood clots cause problems of their own and don't work as intended.

Doctors often prescribe the tight, thigh-high stockings to patients who have suffered a stroke, seeking to prevent blood clots in patients' legs. Those clots could prove fatal if they break off and reach the heart or lungs.

But a study of more than 2,500 stroke patients in Australia, Britain and Italy, doctors found the stockings did nothing to reduce the chances of a clot. Not only that, but they caused problems like skin ulcers and blisters.

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The results were simultaneously published in the Lancet medical journal and presented at the European Stroke Conference in Stockholm on Wednesday.

Some experts say they're surprised by the findings.

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