• Berkant Ozpolat, Mehmet Ali Yilmaz, and Ertan Yücel.
• Dişkapi Yildirim Beyazit Education and Research Hospital, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Ankara, Turkey. berkantozpolat@yahoo.com
• Blood Coagul. Fibrinolysis. 2007 Sep 1;18(6):575-6.

AbstractWarfarin sodium is a commonly used oral anticoagulant agent. It has been well documented that, when effective anticoagulant therapy is employed in treating thromboembolic disease, hemorrhage is a possible complication that can be spontaneous without a history of trauma. The numerous sites of bleeding are the genitourinary and gastrointestinal tracts, the central nervous system, the nose (epistaxis), the penis (priapism), the retroperitoneum, wounds (surgical or traumatic), and subcutaneous tissues during warfarin therapy, but the hemorrhage rarely causes bleeding compromising a patient's airway. We report a case of a spontaneous lingual hematoma that developed during oral anticoagulation therapy. This life-threatening complication of warfarin therapy and its successful management without surgery indicates that observation, close monitoring and reversal of anticoagulation can be a reasonable management option.

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