Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE
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Pacing Clin Electrophysiol · Jul 2011
No increased bleeding events with continuation of oral anticoagulation therapy for patients undergoing cardiac device procedure.
Switching warfarin for heparin has been a practice for managing periprocedural anticoagulation in high-risk patients undergoing device-related procedures. We sought to investigate whether continuation of warfarin sodium therapy without heparin bridging is safe and, when it is continued, the optimal international normalized ratio (INR) without increased bleeding risk at time of device-related procedure. ⋯ Continuation of oral anticoagulation therapy with an INR level of <2.5 does not impose increased risk of bleeding for device-related procedures, although precaution is necessary to avoid supratherapeutic anticoagulation levels.