Length of hospital stay for treatment of deep venous thrombosis and the incidence of recurrent thromboembolism.

Abstract
EVIDENCE-BASED guidelines for the treatment of deep venous thrombosis currently recommend at least 5 days of intravenous heparin overlapping with at least 4 or 5 days of warfarin sodium or until the international normalized ratio (INR) is 2.0 or more.1 However, in the 1990s health care systems are moving rapidly to reduce health care expenditures, particularly the cost of hospital care. For patients with symptomatic deep venous thrombosis this means shortening the length of hospital stay by instituting oral anticoagulant therapy on the day of admission and discontinuing heparin as soon as a therapeutic INR is achieved. However, there are no published data regarding the efficacy of intravenous heparin therapy for fewer than 5 days.