Venous thromboembolism in adults: summary of updated NICE guidance on diagnosis, management, and thrombophilia testing

### What’s new in this guidance? Venous thromboembolic (VTE) disease is a continuing global health burden with serious mortality, morbidity, and health economic consequences.1 The one year case fatality rate of definite or probable VTE has been estimated at 23%.2 Approximately 1 to 2 of every 1000 adults in the worldwide population will be diagnosed with VTE annually, with higher incidence rates in those over 70 (2 to 7/1000) and over 80 (3 to 12/1000).13 On 26 March 2020, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published NG158,4 an updated version of its guideline on the diagnosis and management of VTE (original version 2012, minor update 2015: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence 2020 venous thromboembolism in adults: diagnosis, management and thrombophilia testing. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng158). This article summarises the new key recommendations, with a focus on those most relevant to primary care and secondary generalist physicians, and includes existing 2012 or 2015 recommendations that have not been updated where they are relevant to the topic …