[The best of 2001. Vascular medicine]

Length of treatment after venous thromboembolism remains a controversial issue. Two studies published in 2001 did not demonstrate a higher benefit of long-term treatment compared to short-term treatment. New antithrombotic drugs, such as pentasaccharid and ximelagatran are beginning to appear in this field. Long-term travel as a risk factor for venous thrombolysis has also been studied and a recent study demonstrates that it is a risk factor of pulmonary embolism for a travel above 5000 km. No major advances occurred in the arterial field, except the absence of major differences between carotid surgery and carotid angioplasty in the CAVATAS study. This study required to continue to compare these two therapeutic options in randomized trials.