More than 50 years ago, vitamin K antagonists were the only available oral anticoagulants. Since their application involves a number of limitations, it was necessary to develop new oral anticoagulant drugs and introduce them into clinical practice. These drugs have many advantages over vitamin K antagonists, including rapid onset/offset, a small number of interactions with other drugs and food, simplified dosing and predictable pharmacokinetics, eliminating the need for daily laboratory monitoring. In addition, new oral anticoagulant drugs act selectively on a single coagulation factor. Currently, the following drugs are approved for use: direct thrombin inhibitor, dabigatran etexilate, direct factor Xa inhibitor, rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban. Dabigatran etexilate and apixaban are approved for the primary prevention of venous thromboembolism in adult patients undergoing elective surgery of total hip or knee replacement, while in addition to these anticoagulants edoxaban is approved for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in adult patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. For the treatment and prevention of recurrent deep vein thrombosis dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban and edoxaban are approved. In addition, rivaroxaban is approved for the secondary prevention of atherothrombotic events in patients with acute coronary syndrome.