Current concepts of anticoagulant and antiplatelet therapy in patients with vascular pathology

The routine practice of a vascular surgeon is invariably associated with decreasing the risk of adverse cardiovascular events in patients presenting with either arterial or venous pathology. Antithrombotic therapy is one of the key approaches used to achieve this purpose. However, a wide variety of modern drugs inhibiting platelet aggregation and agents blocking the coagulation cascade, as well as their combinations makes the selection of the most appropriate treatment for a particular patient quite a difficult task. The choice should carefully be made taking into consideration the nosology, aetiology, accompanying diseases and therapy thereof, as well as the balance of the risk of ischaemic and haemorrhagic complications. Therefore, availability of modern antithrombotic drugs favourably contributing to a more personified approach to treatment is of utmost importance. Thus, for example, rivaroxaban, an anticoagulant belonging to the class of direct-acting oral factor Xa inhibitors, provides a possibility to select an optimal dosage and regimen for a particular patient with arterial or vascular pathology in practice of a cardiovascular surgeon.