Efficacy of Direct Oral Anticoagulant into the Care of Venous Thromboembolism Related to Kumamoto Earthquake

Kumamoto was hit by a series of strong earthquakes beginning on April 14, 2016. We treated many deep vein thrombosis (DVT) patients and pulmonary thrombosis (PTE) patients. We came up with a strategy for diagnosis and therapy of venous thromboembolism (VTE). For VTE patients, we prescribed anticoagulant drugs, mainly direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC). To evaluate the validity and safety of the medical strategy for VTE in disasters, we investigated the prognosis of VTE patients at 4 months after the initial quake. In the two months following the initial quake we attended to 43 VTE patients, 11 PTE patients (including 9 patients with both DVT and PTE) and 32 DVT patients. We prescribed DOAC to 34 patients and Warfarin to 4 patients. Based on the survey at 4 months after the first tremblor, the period of anticoagulation therapy was 95.0±17.2 days for PTE and 57.1±36.5 days for DVT and 12 patients were continuing to take anticoagulant drugs. There were no recurrent VTE or bleeding events. DOAC therapy of VTE is therefore considered effective and safe in the event of a natural disaster. (This is a translation of J Jpn Coll Angiol 2017; 57: 33–40.)