Review of article: Perioperative bridging anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation by James D. Douketis, MD, Alex C. Spyropoulos, MD, Scott Kaatz, DO, et al (N Engl J Med 2015;373: 823-833)

The investigators performed the Bridging Anticoagulation in Patients who Require Temporary Interruption of Warfarin Therapy for an Elective Invasive Procedure or Surgery (BRIDGE) trial. The research group theorized that forgoing bridging anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation would be noninferior to bridging with low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) for the prevention of perioperative thromboembolism and would be superior to the use of LMWH in terms of major bleeding. They believed short-term use of bridging therapy had not been proven effective in a randomized controlled trial and challenged the premise that the benefit of bridging therapy (lower risk of perioperative atheroembolism) outweighed the risk (higher bleeding rates).

Source: Journal of Vascular Nursing - November 11, 2015 Category: Nursing Authors: Anne M. Foley Tags: Research Column Source Type: research