The American College of Chest Physician score to assess therisk of bleeding during anticoagulation in patients with venous thromboembolism: comment

In patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE), the goal of anticoagulation is to treat the current VTE and to prevent recurrent VTE. However, anticoagulation also imposes an increased risk for bleeding events and this risk must be assessed to determine appropriateness of a given treatment plan for each patient. The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) guidelines for VTE management presented a set of 18 risk factors and scoring system to distinguish patients with a low, moderate, or high risk of bleeding. Having two or more of these risk factors was deemed high risk based on bleeding rate estimates from several studies and the scoring system was used to make recommendations for time-limited or extended treatment courses. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.