Rethrombosis--warfarin or low-dose heparin?

Clinical trials have inherent limitations that frequently lead to wide disagreements among both statisticians and clinicians.1 In fact, continued criticisms of clinical trials have produced skepticism about the value of antithrombotic agents in routine practice. As a result of this skepticism, appropriate therapeutic measures may not be accepted by the medical community at large. This is particularly true in venous thromboembolism, in which the physician can always recognize failure ("break-through" thrombosis or serious hemorrhage) and yet never be aware of success — a dilemma that requires belief in the validity of statistical analysis for anticoagulants to be widely accepted. Nor . . .