Aspirin cuts recurrent VTE ~32% vs placebo after stopping anticoagulants for first unprovoked VTE.

“The results of this study suggest the simple, inexpensive treatment of low-dose aspirin could prevent thousands of patients from experiencing recurrent clots each year and may make substantial healthcare savings in Australia and worldwide. These results suggest that aspirin prevents about one third of recurrent blood clot events. For every 1000 patients treated for one year, aspirin can be expected to prevent about 20 to 30 episodes of recurrent major thrombotic events at the cost of about three significant bleeding episodes.”

“It is not recommended that aspirin be given instead of anticoagulant therapy, but rather be given to patients who are stopping anticoagulant therapy or for whom such treatments are considered unsuitable. Although less effective, aspirin is inexpensive, easily obtainable, safe and familiar to patients and clinicians worldwide. If cost is the main consideration, aspirin is a particularly useful therapy. The costs of treating future thromboembolic events is greater than the cost of the preventive treatment.”

“Aspirin does not require laboratory monitoring, and is associated with about a 10-fold lower incidence of bleeding compared with oral anticoagulants. We are convinced that it will be an alternative for extended prevention of venous thromboembolism after 6–12 months of anticoagulant treatment.”