Abstract
The fact that oral contraceptives may predispose to thrombosis is not disputed, although its frequency is still debated. Any reliable assessment of the prevalence of this complication must in the main depend on careful statistical studies of well controlled groups, because the isolated case may well be coincidental when conditions such as coronary thrombosis, cerebral thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism are not extreme rarities in adult women. However, occasionally the clinical and pathological findings are so striking that they afford compelling evidence. The patient to be described presented with clinical features of pancreatitis that did not initially suggest an association with oral contraception. A hitherto undescribed state of multiple infarcts was found at post-mortem. This also illustrates the way in which the official figures for thrombotic complications can be underestimated.
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