• Takeshi Nishimura, Francis X Guyette, Hiromichi Naito, Atsunori Nakao, Joshua B Brown, and Clifton W Callaway.
• From the Department of Emergency Medicine (T.N., F.X.G., C.W.C.), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine (T.N.), Hyogo Emergency Medical Center, Hyogo; Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine (T.N., H.N., A.N.), Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan; and Department of Surgery (J.B.B.), Division of Trauma and General Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2020 Sep 1; 89 (3): 514-522.

BackgroundDirect oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are widely used among patients requiring anticoagulant therapy. These drugs are associated with a lower risk of bleeding than vitamin K antagonists (VKAs). However, the outcomes of elderly trauma patients receiving DOACs are not well known.MethodsWe reviewed data from trauma patients at our level I trauma center (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Presbyterian Hospital) seen from January 2011 to July 2018. We identified trauma patients taking DOACs or VKAs and compared these cohorts using 1:1 propensity score-matching based on patient characteristics, antiplatelet use, comorbidities, and laboratory values. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes included the proportion of patients discharged to skilled nursing facility/rehabilitation facility discharge or to home, and transfusion volume.ResultsOf 32,272 trauma patients screened, 530 were taking DOACs and 1,702 were taking VKAs. We matched 668 patients in a 1:1 ratio (DOACs group, 334 vs. VKAs group, 334). The DOACs group had similar mortality (4.8% vs. 1.6%; odds ratio (OR), 3.0; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.31-28.8; p = 0.31) among patients younger than 65 years, but mortality differed (3.0% vs. 6.6%; OR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.17-0.99; p = 0.048) among patients older than 65 years. The proportion of patients discharged to skilled nursing facility/rehabilitation facility (50.0% vs. 50.6%; OR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.72-1.32; p = 0.88) and to home (40.4% vs. 38.6%; OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.79-1.47; p = 0.64) were similar. Patients in the DOACs group received fewer fresh frozen plasma (p = 0.032), but packed red blood cells (p = 0.86) and prothrombin complex concentrate (p = 0.48) were similar.ConclusionIn this matched cohort of anticoagulated trauma patients, DOACs were associated with the decreased in-hospital mortality and decreased administration of fresh frozen plasma compared with VKAs among trauma patients 65 years or older taking anticoagulant therapy.Level Of EvidencePrognostic/Epidemiological, level III.

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