Temporal Trends in the Practice Pattern for Venous Thromboembolism in Japan: Insight From JROAD‐DPC

BACKGROUND: Recently, direct oral anticoagulants have been introduced for venous thromboembolism (VTE), which might change the management strategies of VTE. However, there have been limited data on the current real‐world practice pattern for VTE in Asian countries. METHODS AND RESULTS: The JROAD‐DPC (Japanese Registry of All Cardiac and Vascular Diseases\xF6Diagnosis Procedure Combination) is a nationwide claim database from 1022 hospitals in Japan between April 2012 and March 2017. We identified 54 369 patients who were hospitalized with a diagnosis of VTE at admission based on the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD‐10) code. The mean age was 69.1±15.6 years, 59% were women, and mean body mass index was 23.5±5.0 kg/m(2). The proportion of patients with deep vein thrombosis decreased over time from 72% in 2012 to 38% in 2017. After the release of direct oral anticoagulants, the proportion of patients receiving direct oral anticoagulants increased dramatically among patients with anticoagulation therapy at discharge with the use of edoxaban, rivaroxaban, and apixaban in 35%, 22%, and 27% of patients, respectively, in 2017. On the other hand, the proportion of patients receiving warfarin decreased from 94% in 2012 to 15% in 2017. The median length of a hospital stay decreased over time from 20 days in 2012 to 13 days in 2017 in patients with pulmonary embolism, and from 14 days in 2012 to 12 days in 2017 in patients with deep vein thrombosis. The median cost of hospitalization for pulmonary embolism moderately decreased over time, whereas that for deep vein thrombosis slightly decreased over time. CONCLUSIONS: A nationwide claim‐based database provided the current practice pattern for VTE in Japan, which revealed dynamic changes after the release of direct oral anticoagulants. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.umin.ac.jp. Unique identifier: UMIN000037868.