The length of use of anticoagulant therapy to treat venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains controversial. It remained 
a matter of debate about the optimal duration of oral anticoagulant therapy after a first episode of VTE, according to an article found in Circulation American Heart Association Journal.
A trial admitted to find out the optimal duration to treat this VTE. Six-week regimen of oral anticoagulant therapy is demonstrated for isolated calf deep vein thrombosis (C-DVT), and a 3- to 6-month treatment is recommended for proximal DVT (P-DVT) or for pulmonary embolism (PE). As retrospective study stated that a short anticoagulant course is recommended for patients with temporary risk factors, and a long anticoagulant course is recommended for those with permanent risk factors or idiopathic VTE.
The researchers came from the Department of Internal Medicine, the Clinical Pharmacology Unit, and the Pneumological Unit, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lyon, France. They performed an open-label, randomized trial comparing a short oral anticoagulant course (3 months for proximal deep vein thrombosis [P-DVT] and/or pulmonary embolism [PE]; 6 weeks for isolated calf DVT [C-DVT]) with a long course of therapy (6 months for P-DVT/PE; 12 weeks for C-DVT) for a total of 736 patients were enrolled and recurrent VTE and hemorrhage (major, minor, or fatal) as an end point.
Equivalence between the 2 treatment regimens (long and short) was founded for the recurrence outcome and no significant increase in bleeding complications in the long regimen, including patients with permanent risk factors or idiopathic VTE. Patients with isolated C-DVT had a significant lower incidence of reccurency. For patients with P-DVT/PE, our study demonstrates equivalence between 3 and 6 months of treatment.
Find detailed article about Optimal Duration to Treat Venous Thromboembolism here in PDF Filetype (source: circ.ahajournals.org). Find also other Internal Medicine Journal.
