It has been established for some time that warfarin use can bring about significant reductions in mortality for patients with atrial fibrillation 5 or venous thromboembolism.
As the incidence of both atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism increases exponentially among the elderly, the number of anticoagulated patients will continue to increase. To a lesser extent, the growing prevalence of warfarin use is the result of a trend towards a longer duration of therapy for venous thromboembolic disease. 4 Much of this increase can be attributed to a series of trials conducted in the 1990s that demonstrated the value of warfarin in preventing cardioembolic disease in patients with atrial fibrillation. 3 In countries, such as Sweden and the United Kingdom, where such data have been published, it is estimated that 1% of the entire population is now taking warfarin. Per capita use of warfarin in the United States quadrupled during the years 1988 to 2000, 2 and it tripled in Canada during the later interval of 1996 to 2006.
1 This topic is of interest to our readers and to much of the medical community patients taking vitamin K antagonists (warfarin, for the most part) are all around us. on the management of patients taking vitamin K antagonists who require urgent surgical procedures. In this issue of the Journal is a review by Grobler et al.
0 kommentar(er)
