BACKGROUND: About 2-5% of people experience deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) during their lives. Death, disease recurrence, post-thrombotic syndrome, and excessive bleeding due to coagulant medications are among the most important DVT complications. Recent research found a high incidence of DVT recurrence after the first attack. Disease recurrence has a multifactorial pathogenesis and its probability is related with the number and severity of risk factors. The present study aimed to investigate DVT recurrence and the associated risk factors. Method This retrospective cross-sectional study evaluated all DVT patients hospitalized in Tekur Anbessa hospital emergency department during April 2009 to April 2012. The risk factors were obtained from patients' records including smoking, intravenous drug abuse, coagulopathy disorder having a history of surgery, history of cardiac disease, cancer, immobilization and trauma. A standardized structured questioner composed of closed-ended questions was used to collect the data and it was adopted from a study Marianne Tang Severinsen on their PhD thesis. The questionnaire is compose of closed ended question, mostly composed of tables and some yes and no question. Results A total number of 532 DVT patients were hospitalized in Taker Anbesa Hospital Emergency department during the study period. It was only possible to extract the data from 130 patient records. A history of recurrent DVT was reported in 30 individuals (23%). The comparison between the risk factors in patients with a first time DVT and those experiencing a recurrent DVT revealed significant differences solely in the prevalence of blood disorders. Applying stepwise regression indicated coagulopathy (OR: 5.389; 95% CI: 0.004-0.761; P < 0.048) with DVT recurrence Conclusion Based on our findings, DVT patients with blood disorder have high risk of recurrence, so that it should be recommended to have through investigation and management of coagulopathy disorders.