Extended-Duration Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis in Acutely Ill Medical Patients

Extended-duration venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis is commonly provided to patients who undergo orthopedic surgery. In a multinational industry-sponsored study, researchers evaluated the efficacy of extended-duration VTE prophylaxis among acutely ill hospitalized medical patients. All patients received daily enoxaparin (40 mg) for 10 days; they then were randomized to enoxaparin or placebo for 28 more days. Upon discharge, patients self-administered doses.

At the final interim analysis (when 75% of enrollment was achieved, with 3685 recruited patients), no significant difference in VTE rates was noted between the enoxaparin and placebo arms (2.4% vs. 3.3%); however, the analysis showed significantly more major hemorrhages in the enox…