Optimizing the safety of treatment for venous thromboembolism in the era of the direct oral anticoagulants.

Optimizing the safety of treatment for venous thromboembolism in the era of the direct oral anticoagulants. Pol Arch Med Wewn. 2016 Sep 5; Authors: Weitz JI, Jaffer IH Abstract The direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are rapidly replacing vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) for treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The DOACs include dabigatran, which inhibits thrombin, and rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban, which inhibit factor Xa. When compared with conventional VTE treatment consisting of a parenteral anticoagulant followed by a VKA, the DOACs were as effective for prevention of recurrence, but were associated with less bleeding. With similar efficacy, better safety and the convenience of fixed dosing without the need for routine coagulation monitoring, guidelines now recommend DOACs over VKAs for VTE treatment in patients without active cancer. Nonetheless, measures are needed to optimize the safety of the DOACs. Focusing on these measures, this paper (a) summarizes the results of the phase III trials evaluating the DOACs for VTE treatment, (b) identifies which VTE patients are or are not candidates for the DOACs, PMID: 27592622 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Polskie Archiwum Medycyny Wewnetrznej - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Pol Arch Med Wewn Source Type: research