OBJECTIVES Data are limited on the course of patients after an acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) event under clinical practice conditions. METHODS We present current data on the re-hospitalization of patients with deep venous thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE) from the PREFER in VTE registry in 7 Western European countries (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, Austria and Switzerland). The current interim analysis includes data of 2863 patients. 1689 patients had DVT alone and 1174 had PE (±DVT) as qualifying event for inclusion. RESULTS At baseline, 72.2% of the patients received heparin, 11.9% fondaparinux, 48.0% vitamin K antagonists, 25.4% non-VKA oral anticoagulants, 7.0% acetylsalicylic acid, 2.1% other antiplatelets and 1.6% thrombolysis agents. Within the first 6 months, 14.7% of VTE patients were hospitalized for any reason (DVT: 12.9%, PE: 17.5%). Hospitalization rates varied between countries (Spain 10.7%, Germany 10.8%, France 12.5%, Italy 19.3%, UK (at 3 months) 7.5%). The mean number of hospitalizations was 1.3 ±0.85 (1.1 to 1.5 in the various countries; median 1, range 1-6). The documented reasons for hospitalization, among others, were VTE (15.3%), surgery/trauma (13.5%), bleeding (7.4%), or stroke/TIA (3.7%). Mean duration of all combined hospital stays was 9.8 ±12.61 days (4.0 days in Germany, 4.7 in France, 9.0 in Spain, 14.0 in Italy). The overall median duration of hospitalization was 6 days (interquartile range 2-12), for DVT cases it was 6 days (IQR 3-13), for PE cases it was 5 days (IQR 2-11). CONCLUSIONS Under real-life conditions, one in seven patients had to be readmitted to hospital in the first 6 months after the DVT or PE event. However, the majority of hospitalizations were not due to the thromboembolic disease or bleeding. The duration of hospital stays showed a wide range across Western European countries.