New Oral Anticoagulants in the Management of VTE

Abstract

The advent of the new oral anticoagulants (NOAs) for the treatment and long-term (secondary) prevention of venous thromboembolism has been viewed as a revolution in patient care. Not only because the NOAs offer a simple solution compared to the traditional treatment with vitamin K antagonists with similar effectiveness and no need for dose monitoring, but more importantly because NOAs have first less bleeding complications, second very few drug and no food interactions, third no heparin-induced thrombocytopenia has been reported and last but not least two of them (rivaroxaban and apixaban) can be started as monotherapy. These facts are outlined by this Editorial.