title: [Prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism: the place of new oral anticoagulants].
abstract: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is still an important problem of Public Health, due to its impact in terms of morbidity, mortality, resource allocation and associated costs. In the prevention and treatment of VTE, pharmacological therapy is well defined and efficacious but has some inconveniences that leave space for improvement. Several new oral anticoagulants are being developed and tested for the prevention and treatment of VTE. The better studied are the selective Factor Xa inhibitors apixaban, rivaroxaban and edoxaban, and the thrombin antagonist dabigatran. They all are orally administrated, don't have important interactions with food or other drugs, have a convenient fixed-dose regimen and a predictable action, and dispense routine monitoring of their anticoagulant effect. The major part of them has phase III studies concluded and published. Some of them are already approved by de European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and recommended by the international guidelines. Rivaroxaban is approved by the EMA for the treatment of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and for the prevention of recurrences of DVT and pulmonary embolism. In this article the available evidences are reviewed, the place of the new oral anticoagulants is discussed and future perspectives regarding the prevention and treatment of VTE are outlined.
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Medicina Interna, Consulta de Doença Vascular Pulmonar, Hospital de Santo António, Centro Hospitalar do Porto, EPE, Porto, Portugal. abilio.reis@netvisao.pt
authors.forename: Abílio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reis
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000284:Administration, Oral; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D011322:Primary Prevention; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D054556:Venous Thromboembolism / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants