Objective:
Warfarin is the most commonly used oral anticoagulant around the world. The most important complication of warfarin is bleeding. This study was conducted to evaluate the patients who were admitted to our emergency department due to complications related to warfarin treatment.
Material and Methods:
Eighty-nine patients (32 females, 57 males) were enrolled into this retrospective study. The patients were evaluated according to their age, gender, duration of therapy (year), co-administered drugs, bleeding localization, treatments, amount of blood transfusions, duration of bleeding, initial and after-treatment PT, INR, complete blood count, and aPTT.
Results:
Mean duration of anticoagulant use was 3.05±2.87 years. The most common indication of warfarin was atrial fibrillation. The most frequent bleeding localization was the upper gastrointestinal tract. Thirty-four (38.2%) of the patients had major bleeding, and 55 (61.8%) had minor bleeding. Age, co-administered drugs, amount of erythrocyte suspension transfusion, presence of previous warfarin overdose history, Hb levels at admission, and duration of follow-up in the ED were different between the bleeding types.
Conclusion:
In this study, we found that the bleeding complications of warfarin were associated with the aged population, presence of previous warfarin overdose history, and concomitant drug use.
Keywords: Oral anticoagulant treatment, warfarin, bleeding, emergency department