The study found that placing a stent to open and strengthen the affected vein reduced the severity of the post-thrombotic syndrome and improved venous symptoms and overall quality of life in affected patients.

The results are published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting in Toronto.

Lead author Suresh Vedantham, MD, an interventional radiologist and professor of radiology in Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at WashU Medicine and national principal investigator of the clinical trial, said the study was driven by the need to find effective ways to help a large and growing patient population for whom physicians did not previously have many well-tested options.