Venous thromboembolism and its association with COVID-19: Still an open debate

Abstract

Asreported by the World Health Organization, a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was identified as the causative virus of new viral pneumonia of unknown etiology by Chinese authorities on 7 January 2020. The virus was named COVID-19 and because of its ability to cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (i.e., SARS) this infection has also been defined as SARS-CoV2. Furthermore, an association between COVID-19 infection and venous thromboembolism has been reported in several series around the world. For this reason, methods used to improve diagnostic tools, pharmacological thromboprophylaxis and type of anticoagulants are discussed in this expert opinion.