The clinical course of deep-vein thrombosis. Prospective long-term follow-up of 528 symptomatic patients.

Abstract

Symptomatic DVT carries a high risk for recurrent venous thromboembolism that persists for many years, especially in patients without transient risk factors for DVT. The post-thrombotic syndrome occurs in almost one-third of patients and is strongly related to recurrent ipsilateral DVT. Our findings challenge the widely adopted short course of anticoagulation in patients with symptomatic DVT.