New Data on Treatment Duration for Provoked DVT

William E. Dager, Pharm.D., FCSHP
April 2004

Review: Kearon C, Ginsberg JS, Anderson DR, et al for the SOFAST Investigators. Comparison of 1 month with 3 months of anticoagulation for a first episode of venous thromboembolism associated with a transient risk factor. J Thromb Haemost 2004;2:743-9.

The recent PREVENT and ELATE trials addressed the question of duration of anticoagulation therapy in patients with idiopathic venous thrombotic events (VTE). But what about the duration of anticoagulation therapy in patients with VTE associated with a predisposing acute event? This small study attempted to explore whether any differences in symptomatic VTE or bleeding occurred when treating a VTE with warfarin for either 1 month, or 3 months. Patients with known hypercoagulable states were excluded. The yearly rate of symptomatic VTE was higher in the 84 patients receiving 1 month of therapy (6.8%/yr) versus 81 receiving 3 months (3.2%/yr). No major bleeding was observed in either group. Of note is that additional events separating the two groups did not occur until 5 months post initiation of therapy, and that the observed VTE rates were higher then initially expected. The authors concluded that duration of anticoagulation therapy for VTE provoked by a transient risk factor should not be reduced from 3 months to 1 month.

The abstract of this article is available on PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine. Click here to access the abstract on PubMed.