Abstract
Venous thromboembolism is a major medical and social economical problem. However, it is a big challenge because it is possible to eliminate this disease by appropriate thromboprophylaxis.
Unfractionated heparin has been the therapy of choice for many years, but it was replaced by low molecular heparin in the last 20 years. New antithrombotic have come up in clinical praxis recently.
There are 2 new drugs with a different mechanism of action. Dabigatran etexilate is direct thrombin inhibitor, rivaroxaban is direct FXa inhibitor.
In our article, we discuss current knowledge of these drugs and the possibility of use in the clinical praxis.