Pathways for outpatient management of venous thromboembolism in a UK centre.

It has become widely recognised that outpatient treatment may be suitable for many patients with venous thromboembolism. In addition, non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants that have been approved over the last few years have the potential to be an integral component of the outpatient care pathway, owing to their oral route of administration, lack of requirement for routine anticoagulation monitoring and simple dosing regimens. A robust pathway for outpatient care is also vital; one such pathway has been developed at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in the UK. This paper describes the pathway and the arguments in its favour as an example of best practice and value offered to patients with venous thromboembolism. The pathway has two branches (one for deep vein thrombosis and one for pulmonary embolism), each with the same five-step process for outpatient treatment. Both begin from the point that the patient presents (in the Emergency Department, Thrombosis Clinic or general practitioner's office), followed by diagnosis, risk stratification, treatment choice and, finally, follow-up. The advantages of these pathways are that they offer clear, evidence-based guidance for the identification, diagnosis and treatment of patients who can safely be treated in the outpatient setting, and provide a detailed, stepwise process that can be easily adapted to suit the needs of other institutions. The approach is likely to result in both healthcare and economic benefits, including increased patient satisfaction and shorter hospital stays

Edoxaban for the Treatment of Cancer-Associated Venous Thromboembolism

BACKGROUND: Low-molecular-weight heparin is the standard treatment for cancer-associated venous thromboembolism. The role of treatment with direct oral anticoagulant agents is unclear. METHODS: In this open-label, noninferiority trial, we randomly assigned patients with cancer who had acute symptomatic or incidental venous thromboembolism to receive either low-molecular-weight heparin for at least 5 days followed by oral edoxaban at a dose of 60 mg once daily (edoxaban group) or subcutaneous dalteparin at a dose of 200 IU per kilogram of body weight once daily for 1 month followed by dalteparin at a dose of 150 IU per kilogram once daily (dalteparin group). Treatment was given for at least 6 months and up to 12 months. The primary outcome was a composite of recurrent venous thromboembolism or major bleeding during the 12 months after randomization, regardless of treatment duration. RESULTS: Of the 1050 patients who underwent randomization, 1046 were included in the modified intention-to-treat analysis. A primary-outcome event occurred in 67 of the 522 patients (12.8%) in the edoxaban group as compared with 71 of the 524 patients (13.5%) in the dalteparin group (hazard ratio, 0.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.70 to 1.36; P=0.006 for noninferiority; P=0.87 for superiority). Recurrent venous thromboembolism occurred in 41 patients (7.9%) in the edoxaban group and in 59 patients (11.3%) in the dalteparin group (difference in risk, −3.4 percentage points; 95% CI, −7.0 to 0.2). Major bleeding occurred in 36 patients (6.9%) in the edoxaban group and in 21 patients (4.0%) in the dalteparin group (difference in risk, 2.9 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.1 to 5.6). CONCLUSIONS: Oral edoxaban was noninferior to subcutaneous dalteparin with respect to the composite outcome of recurrent venous thromboembolism or major bleeding. The rate of recurrent venous thromboembolism was lower but the rate of major bleeding was higher with edoxaban than with dalteparin. (Funded by Daiichi Sankyo; Hokusai VTE Cancer ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02073682.

Predictive value of venous thromboembolism (VTE)-BLEED to predict major bleeding and other adverse events in a practice-based cohort of patients with VTE: results of the XALIA study

Venous thromboembolism (VTE)-BLEED, a decision tool for predicting major bleeding during chronic anticoagulation for VTE has not yet been validated in practice-based conditions. We calculated the prognostic indices of VTE-BLEED for major bleeding after day 30 and day 90, as well as for recurrent VTE and all-cause mortality, in 4457 patients enrolled in the international, prospective XALIA study. The median at-risk time was 190 days (interquartile range 106\u2013360). The crude hazard ratio (HR) for major bleeding after day 30 was 2\ub76 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1\ub73\u20135\ub72] and the treatment-adjusted HR was 2\ub73 (95% CI 1\ub71\u20134\ub75) for VTE-BLEED high (versus low) risk patients: the corresponding values for major bleeding after day 90 were 3\ub78 (95% CI 1\ub76\u20139\ub73) and 3\ub72 (95% CI 1\ub73\u20137\ub77), respectively. The predictive value of VTE-BLEED was similar in selected patients with unprovoked VTE or those treated with rivaroxaban. High VTE-BLEED score was associated with higher incidence of all-cause mortality (treatment-adjusted HR 11, 95% CI 4\ub78\u201323), but not evidently with recurrent VTE (treatment-adjusted HR 1\ub75; 95% CI 0\ub785\u20132\ub77). These results confirm the predictive value of VTE-BLEED in practice-based data in patients treated with rivaroxaban or conventional anticoagulation, supporting the hypothesis that VTE-BLEED may be useful for making management decisions on the duration of anticoagulant therapy