Preventable Cases of Oral Anticoagulant-Induced Bleeding: Data From the Spontaneous Reporting System

Conclusion: Our findings describe the most reported risk factors for preventability of oral anticoagulant-induced bleedings. These factors may be useful for targeting interventions to improve pharmacovigilance activities in our regional territory and to reduce the burden of medication errors and inappropriate prescription. Introduction Oral anticoagulant therapy is widely used for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation, or for the prevention and treatment of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (Raj et al., 1994; Monaco et al., 2017). Oral anticoagulants can be divided into “indirect oral anticoagulants,” like vitamin K antagonists (VKAs; warfarin, or acenocoumarol), which have been the cornerstone of the anticoagulation therapy for decades, and into the more recently approved “direct oral anticoagulants” (DOACs), which are selective inhibitors of single coagulation factors. Belongs to DOACs the reversible direct thrombin inhibitor (dabigatran), and the direct factor Xa inhibitors (rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban) (Sabir et al., 2014; Monaco et al., 2017). Since their introduction, these more recent drugs have added some advantages to the clinical practice, like the rapid onset of action, the more predictable pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, the potentially reduced risk for drug-drug interactions, and the absence of routine coagulation monitoring (Mekaj et al., 2015; Eikelboom an...
Source: Frontiers in Pharmacology - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research