A large, international study has found a drug that helps blood to clot reduced life-threatening, major and critical organ bleeding in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery – without increasing major vascular complications.
The drug tested, tranexamic acid (TXA), was administered to patients at risk of bleeding or vascular complications. The study found that TXA did not increase deep vein coagulation known as VTE, heart attack, non-hemorrhagic stroke or other significant vascular complication in the 30 days after surgery.
In the study, half of the 9,535 patients in 22 countries were randomly assigned to TXA, and half to placebo. Patients were 45 years of age or older (mean age 69 years). 44% of them were women.
The study was published today in New England Journal of Medicineand was presented at the ACC 2022 conference of the American College of Cardiology by senior author PJ Devereaux.
“Bleeding is a common problem in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery and often leads to patients who need a blood transfusion. Our study shows that tranexamic acid can prevent this problem,” said Devereaux, a senior fellow at the Research Institute. for Population Health at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS).
“In addition, our discovery of a safe, effective way to reduce surgical bleeding has the potential to help healthcare systems achieve a wider outcome.”
“Surgical bleeding is responsible for 40% of all transfusions and requires more blood products than are currently available worldwide,” added Devereaux, who is also a professor of medicine and health research methods, evidence and impact at McMaster. cardiologist and surgeon at HHS.
“Reduced bleeding that is safe for patients could address the challenge of poor blood supply and save more lives.”
“In our test, tranexamic acid showed a steady reduction in the risk of bleeding based on several definitions and reduced the risk of 1 or 2 to 4 transfusions,” said MRI Marcucci, a PHRI scientist and co-author of the study.
“With 300 million surgeries performed each year worldwide, tranexamic acid has the potential for great public health and clinical benefits,” Marcucci added. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster, and an Internal Medicine Physician at HHS.
Better risk assessment for cardiac surgery leads to better outcomes in patients More information: PJ Devereaux et al, Highly sensitive troponin I after cardiac surgery and 30-day mortality, New England Journal of Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1056 / NEJMoa2000803 Provided by McMaster University
Reference: Reduced significant bleeding in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery (2022, April 4) recovered on 4 April 2022 from
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