Patients with prosthetic heart valves require lifelong oral anticoagulant therapy based on vitamin K antagonists. These patients may need interruption of their anticoagulant therapy if they have to undergo surgery. The clinical challenge is to identify patients who can safely undergo surgery while continuing their vitamin K antagonist treatment and those who have to take short-acting heparin as...

Neonatal purpura fulminans is a rare and life threatening disease that can be inherited or acquired in etiology. It manifests as DIC and extensive subcutaneous thrombosis. The condition is often fatal unless there is prompt diagnosis, and judicious therapy. The most important causes of this condition are infections and congenital deficiency of anticoagulant proteins C and S.In the case of PC (p...

the use of anticoagulant and antiplatelet agents has become more prevalent during the past decades. these drugs may potentially cause gastrointestinal (gi) bleeding. thus, there is an increasing need for gi endoscopy in patients who take these medications. in patients who take anticoagulant and antiplatelet agents, the appropriate conditions under which endoscopic procedures should be performed...

Cardiovascular conditions, apart from neoplastic diseases, remain the major cause of death in developed countries; therefore, the number of patients receiving oral anticoagulants is constantly increasing. Anticoagulant therapy considerably reduced mortality in patients with history of myocardial infarction among others. Although many interventions may be performed without withdrawal of the anti...

The main complication of anticoagulant therapy is bleeding. Although the use of long-term oral anticoagulants in patients with transient cerebral ischemia and/or minor stroke is controversial, anticoagulants are still used in some instances. We have carried out a literature review of the risk of hemorrhage during long-term oral anticoagulant therapy in patients with cerebrovascular disease to d...

A 46-year-old Japanese woman on dialysis for type 1 diabetes and chronic renal failure underwent simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplantation from a brain-dead donor. On postoperative day 3, ilio-femoral deep vein thrombosis on the side of pancreatic transplantation was diagnosed from swelling of the right leg, an increased D-dimer level, and imaging findings. Anticoagulant therapy was init...

Article Highlights: 1) This article provides a full anticoagulant reference for the practicing orthopaedic surgeon which can be used in any clinical scenario, whether urgent or elective surgical intervention is required 2) A comprehensive list of anticoagulant reversal agents and drugs with short half-lives (for bridging) are described with the intention to provide the data needed t...

Optimal timing for restarting anticoagulant therapy after intracranial bleeding is a critical issue. The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize published studies on the management of oral anticoagulant therapy after intracranial bleeding secondary to the use of vitamin K antagonists in patients with a mechanical heart valve. A computer-assisted search of the MEDLINE and EMBASE electr...

The main complication of anticoagulant therapy is bleeding. Although the use of long-term oral anticoagulants in patients with transient cerebral ischemia and/or minor stroke is controversial, anticoagulants are still used in some instances. We have carried out a literature review of the risk of hemorrhage during long-term oral anticoagulant therapy in patients with cerebrovascular disease to d...