OBJECTIVE: DVT is an important problem in clinical practice. This study aims to estimate the costs of treatment of DVT from the perspective of the private medicine payers in Brazil. METHODS: To determine actual costs of patient management the resource use collected during comparative clinical trials often is insufficient. Although large data bases can be used to estimate patient health care resource consumption they are not always available. One reasonable data source is soliciting expert opinion from clinicians. Two Delphi panels one for vascular surgeons, and another for intensivists were performed in order to delineate practice patterns and to obtain resource utilization for routine treatment and monitoring, adverse event management and other clinical parameters representative of community physicians managing of DVT. Responses were obtained from seven vascular surgeons and five intensivists from various centers in Brazil with experience of treating DVT. Percentage likelihood of complications due to thromboprophylaxis was determined based upon physician consensus. A decision analytic model was designed to project the costs associated with venous thromboembolism. RESULTS: The detected mean cost (in Brazilian Reais) of DVT was R$9,895.23. The detected cost of diagnosing DVT was R$74.01, the treatment cost without considering itxs complications was R$5,208.76 and the complications cost, balanced by incidence was R$4,612.46. The cost to avoid a DVT by the use of a thromboprophylaxis was R$177.68. CONCLUSIONS: DVT costs are only a part of the costs incurred in treating high risk surgical or clinical patients. These results clearly show the substantial costs that a DVT may represent in the treatment of these patients that may be prevented by the use of thromboprophylaxis.