Management of antithrombotic therapy in gray areas of venous thromboembolism: a Delphi consensus panel

For some years now, direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have entered the clinical practice for stroke prevention in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) or for prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, there is uncertainty on DOACs’ use in some clinical scenarios that are not fully explored by clinical trials, but commonly encountered in the real world. We report a Delphi Consensus on DOAC use in VTE patients. The consensus dealt with seven main topics: (1) clinical superiority of DOACs compared to VKAs; (2) therapeutic options for patients with intermediate risk PE; (3) therapeutic management of patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT); (4) DOACs’ role in oncological patients with VTE; (5) role of the reversal agent; (6) safety of low doses of DOACs in VTE patients; (7) DOACs long-term therapy (more than 12 months) in VTE patients; Forty-six physicians (cardiologists, internists, angiologists, oncologists, hematologists, and geriatricians) from Italy expressed their level of agreement on each statement by using a five-point Likert scale (1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: somewhat agree, 4: agree, 5: strongly agree). Votes 1–2 were considered as disagreement, while votes 3–5 as agreement. For each statement an agreement of ≥ 66% among the respondents was considered consensus. A brief discussion about the results for each topic is also reported.