The Epidemiology of Venous Thromboembolism

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) occurs for the first time in ≈100 persons per 100,000 each year in the United States, and rises exponentially from <5 cases per 100,000 persons <15 years old to ≈500 cases (0.5%) per 100,000 persons at age 80 years. Approximately one third of patients with symptomatic VTE manifest pulmonary embolism (PE), whereas two thirds manifest deep vein thrombosis (DVT) alone. Despite anticoagulant therapy, VTE recurs...