Citrate anticoagulation has risen in interest so it is now a real alternative to heparin in the ICUs practice. Citrate provides a regional anticoagulation virtually restricted to extracorporeal circuit, where it acts by chelating ionized calcium. This issue is particularly true in patients ongoing CRRT, when the "continuous" systemic anticoagulation treatment is per se a relevant risk of bleedi...

BACKGROUND Anticoagulation management services (AMSs) are widely used for anticoagulation management in many countries. Our AMS is a pharmacist-run ambulatory clinic with a physician advisory committee that manages patients referred with complicated anticoagulation histories. This paper assesses the adequacy of anticoagulation, rates of anticoagulant-related events and associated health care re...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Secondary prevention trials do not distinguish outcomes according to stroke cause. The purpose of the study was to determine whether trial efficacy of anticoagulation for secondary prevention could be replicated in clinical practice in strokes of different etiology. METHODS A 2-year observation study was undertaken in 288 stroke patients with atrial fibrillation (mean a...

INTRODUCTION Drotrecogin alfa (activated) (DrotAA) is licensed in the United States and the European Union for the treatment of severe sepsis with multiple organ failure. Patients with severe sepsis on renal replacement therapy (RRT), who typically receive additional anticoagulation to prevent circuit clotting, may be at higher risk of bleeding when DrotAA is administered in addition to standar...

Anticoagulation of cerebral sinovenous thrombosis (CSVT) is recommended in adults and has been also approved in the paediatric setting. Some controversies remain however between the existing paediatric professional consensus, notably about its use in children with intra-cranial haemorrhage and in neonates. The publication of further original studies prompted the French Society for Paediatric Ne...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Warfarin increases both the likelihood and the mortality of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), particularly in patients with a history of prior ICH. In light of this consideration, should a patient with both a history of ICH and a clear indication for anticoagulation such as nonvalvular atrial fibrillation be anticoagulated? In the absence of data from a clinical trial, we u...

BACKGROUND Dual therapy with ticlopidine and aspirin has been shown to be as effective as or more effective than conventional anticoagulation in patients with an optimal result after implantation of intracoronary metallic stents. However, the safety and efficacy of antiplatelet therapy alone in an unselected population has not been evaluated. METHODS Patients were randomized to conventional a...

Clinical pharmacy is deemed an integral component of a health care system. The presence of clinical pharmacists in medical rounds could assist physicians in optimizing patients' pharmacotherapy. Moreover, clinical pharmacists may reduce adverse effects and medication errors insofar as they contribute significantly to the detection and management of drug-related problems, not least in patients w...

Venous thromboembolism occurs in up to one-third of patients with primary brain tumors. Spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is also a frequent occurrence in these patients, but there is limited data on the safety of therapeutic anticoagulation. To determine the rate of ICH in patients treated with enoxaparin, we performed a matched, retrospective cohort study with blinded radiology review...

BACKGROUND Anticoagulation for the haemodialysis circuit in patients treated with oral anticoagulation poses additional haemorrhagic risk. The few available data suggest that tapering or even stopping heparinization is feasible and the HeprAN membrane with grafted heparin was developed to decrease heparin dose. The objective of our study was to evaluate the need for additional anticoagulation i...