New (direct) oral anticoagulants in VTE

Here is a recent review.

From the conclusion:

Selective thrombin and FXa inhibitors are a new class of anticoagulant drugs, designed to overcome the unmet needs of current therapy. They are orally active, reach full anticoagulant effects shortly after intake, have a relatively short half-life after discontinuation and, in most clinical circumstances, no regular laboratory monitoring or dose adjustment is required. These characteristics render these agents more manageable and appealing for both patients and physicians than heparins or VKAs, but apart these practical advantages of direct oral anticoagulants, what have we learnt from published phase III trials regarding their efficacy and safety in the clinical setting of VTE? A number of recently published systematic reviews and meta-analyses did pool data from randomised trials and performed indirect comparisons. Collectively, they showed that the four direct anticoagulants currently available have at least a similar efficacy for primary prevention and secondary prevention of VTE recurrence and all-cause mortality compared with standard treatments [50–54]. Pertaining to safety, the main issue is whether or not direct anticoagulants are associated with less bleeding complications that the traditional anticoagulants, particularly VKA antagonists. All in all, it was clearly and consistently shown that direct anticoagulants are associated with less intracranial bleeding than traditional agents, whereas the evidence of their superiority pertaining to other sites of bleeding is more uncertain [51].

Note that in the new ACCP guidelines DOACs are given preference over other oral anticoagulants in all non cancer related VTE.