[Acute deep vein thrombosis-modern diagnostics and treatment]

Acute deep pelvic vein thrombosis (DVT) is usually a non-fatal disease that causes lifelong damage. In the case of clinical suspicion of DVT, D‑dimer determination and/or imaging must be performed. If a timely diagnosis is not possible, anticoagulation should be started. The focus of treatment is the safety of the patient. All studies on thrombus-eliminating procedures, such as thrombolysis, operative open thrombectomy and endovascular revascularization, did not show any advantages over pure anticoagulation and are associated with specific risks. The minimum duration of anticoagulation is 3 months. Thereafter, the decision of prolonged anticoagulation must be made individually for each patient. Compression therapy is an integral part of the treatment of acute TVT in Germany, even the evidence for its effectivenes with respect to the prevention of post-thrombotic syndrome is low.