Clinical treatment of intracranial hemorrhage due to oral warfarin therapy in 27 patients

Abstract

Objective To observe the therapeutic effect of prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) combined with vitamin K (VK) on cerebral hemorrhage related to use of oral anticoagulant (warfarin). Methods Retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of 27 patients with cerebral hemorrhage related to use of oral anticoagulant (warfarin), admitted to our hospital from January 2005 to May 2010. In these patients, 17 adopted VK alone, and 10 adopted PCC+VK; we compared the time for international normalized ratio (INR) of anticoagulation markers returned to normal value and the prognosis between the 2 groups. Results The average times for INR of anticoagulation markers returned to normal value in patients treated with PCC+VK were (2.8± 1.4) h, which was obviously shorter than those in ones treated with VK ([7.8±4.1] h,P＜0.05); Glasgow outcome scale scores in the PCC+VK treatment group were significantly higher than those in the VK treatment group (P＜0.05). The prognosis in the PCC+VK treatment group was better than that in the VK treatment group. Conclusion PCC combined with VK treatment seems to be more effective in rapidly correcting increased INR levels than VK treatment alone, indicating that use of PCC combined with VK may improve the prognosis of patients with intracranial hemorrhage due to oral warfarin therapy. Key words: Cerebral hemorrhage; Warfarin; Prothrombin complex concentrate