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Dear All, Greetings from Al-Ain the oasis city of the Middle East. I read this interesting news item in the 19th April Gulf news and thought it may be of interest to some of you. “Emirates has become the first airline in the world to offer passengers a new device that, it is claimed, will help prevent DVT on long haul flights. From next week, passengers flying on the national carrier will be able to use the new invention called Airogym, to boost circulation in their legs. The device, which was developed by former BA captain Paul Richards consists of two air bags. The system works by blowing up one of the pouches, and is used by placing the balls of the feet on the sacs. The passenger then pushes the air from one pouch to the other". The newspaper goes on about clinical trials on Airogym by a British vascular surgeon John Scurr. I did a Medline search and came out with this single trial published in the cardiovascular surgery. Scurr JH, Coleridge Smith PD, Machin S. Deep vein thrombosis in airline passengers - the incidence of deep vein thrombosis and the efficacy of elastic compression stockings. Cardiovasc Surg 2001 Apr;9(2):159-61 My questions are: Is this evidence sufficient to introduce a public health measure? In future it is possible that the airlines might pass on to the cost to the customers (this is me but I have no evidence for this!) What is the current consensus regarding using devices to prevent DVT during air travel? What level of evidence is needed to implement such a strategy and who should decide these issues? I will be happy to hear your thoughts on the above. Cheers & regards, Have a wonderful weekend but our week starts tomorrow. Badri Dr.P.Badrinath M.D.,M.Phil.,(Epid) PhD(Cantab) Clinical Assistant Professor and Epidemiologist, Department of Community Medicine, UAE University, PO Box 17666, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Tel: 00 971 3 7039 652 Fax: 00 971 3 7672022. http://myprofile.cos.com/badrishanthi "For an excellent review of the current medical literature, go to Journals Scan www.uaeu.ac.ae/jscan/index.htm" - BMJ 3rd June 2000,Reviews(Netlines) _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com