Table 2 MEDLINE search strategy

1

exp Venous Thrombosis/

2

(ven* adj2 thrombos*).ti, ab.

3

exp Deep Vein Thrombosis/

4

(deep adj3 thrombos*).ti, ab.

5

exp Pulmonary Embolism/

6

(pulmonary adj2 embolism*).ti, ab.

7

Venous Thromboembolism/

8

(ven* adj2 thromboembolism*).ti, ab.

9

Recurrent Venous Thromboembolism/

10

1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9

11

secondary prevention/

12

secondary prevention*.ti, ab.

13

(relapse adj2 prevention*).ti, ab.

14

(extended adj2 therap*).ti, ab.

15

11 or 12 or 13 or 14

16

exp Hemorrhage/

17

(hemorrhag* or haemorrhag*).ti, ab.

18

16 or 17

19

Anticoagulants/

20

Antithrombins/

21

(anticoagulant* or anti-coagulant* or antithrombin* or anti-thrombin*).tw.

22

(thrombin adj3 inhibit*).tw.

23

(Factor Xa adj2 (antagonist? or inhibit* or block*)).tw.

24

heparin/ or exp. heparin, low-molecular-weight/

25

(heparin* or beparine or clarin or contusol or disebrin or eleparon or elheparin or elheparon or epiheparin or gag 98 or helberina or hepaflex or hepalean or heparitin* or hepcon or hepsal or inhepar or inviclot or lipo-hepin or lipohepin or liquemin or liquemine or menaven or monoparin or mucoitin or multiparin or nevparin or noparin or panheparin or panhepin or panheprin or parinix or praecivenin or pularin or thromb*or niparin or vetren or vaster).tw.

26

liquaemin.tw.

27

dalteparin*.tw.

28

fragmin*.tw.

29

enoxaparin*.tw.

30

clexane.tw.

31

lovenox.tw.

32

fraxiparin*.tw.

33

nadroparin*.tw.

34

Warfarin/

35

(warfarin or warfant or tedicumar or savaysa or endoxaban or befarin or adoisine or carfin or circuvit or coumadan or coumafene or coumaphene or dagonal or tintorane or uniwarfin or waran or warfar or warnerin or farin or jantoven or kumatox or maforan or orfarin or panwarfarin or panwarfin or prothromadin or warfil* or sofarin).tw.

36

coumadin*.tw.

37

aldocumar.tw.

38

marevan.tw.

39

(Vitamin K adj2 (antagonist? or inhibit* or block*)).tw.

40

19 or 20 or 21 or 22 or 23 or 24 or 25 or 26 or 27 or 28 or 29 or 30 or 31 or 32 or 33 or 34 or 35 or 36 or 37 or 38 or 39

41

randomized controlled trial.pt.

42

controlled clinical trial.pt.

43

random allocation.sh.

44

double-blind method.sh.

45

single-blind method.sh.

46

41 or 42 or 43 or 44 or 45

47

clinical trial.pt.

48

(clin$ adj25 trial$).ti, ab.

49

(singl$ or doubl$ or trebl$ or tripl$) adj25 (blind$ or mask$)).ti, ab.

50

placebos.sh.

51

placebo$.ti, ab.

52

random$.ti, ab.

53

research design.sh.

54

exp cohort studies/

55

cohort$.tw.

56

controlled clinical trial.pt.

57

epidemiologic methods/

58

48 or 49 or 50 or 51 or 52 or 53 or 54 or 55 or 56 or 57

59

46 or 58

60

10 and 15 and 18 and 40 and 59

61

10 and 18 and 40 and 59