The Optimal Duration of Anticoagulant Therapy for Venous Thrombosis

Over the past 20 years, the results of well-designed randomized trials in patients with deep-vein thrombosis have provided reliable information about the treatment of this common disorder. Patients with deep-vein thrombosis should receive adequate doses of heparin for a minimum of five days.¹³ When heparin is stopped, patients should continue to receive oral anticoagulant therapy; the incidence of recurrent deep-vein thrombosis in the first three months is over 25 percent without such treatment, but less than 4 percent among treated patients.^4,5 Progress has been made in determining the optimal intensity of oral anticoagulant therapy,⁶ but the optimal duration . . .