Upper airway hematoma secondary to warfarin therapy: A systematic review of reported cases

Paras Karmacharya, Ranjan Pathak, Sailu Ghimire, Pragya Shrestha, Sushil Ghimire, Dilli Ram Poudel, Raju Khanal, Shirin Shah, Madan Raj Aryal, Richard L AlweisNorth American Journal of Medical Sciences 2015 7(11):494-502Upper airway hematoma (UAH) is a rare but life-threatening complication of oral anticoagulants requiring early recognition. However, no consensus exists regarding the best approach to treatment. We therefore, sought to systematically review the published literature on UAH to elaborate its demographic and clinical characteristics, treatment, complications, and outcomes. A systematic electronic search of PubMed and EMBASE for case reports, case series, and related articles of UAH related to warfarin published from inception (November 1950) to March 2015 was carried out. Categorical variables were expressed as percentage and continuous variables as mean ± standard deviation (SD). Statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0.All cases were reported to have UAH as a complication of anticoagulation therapy with warfarin. Demographic and clinical characteristics, treatment, complications and outcomes of UAH were studied. Thirty-eight cases of UAH were identified from 34 reports in the literature. No gender preponderance (male = 52.78%) was seen and the average age of presentation was 60.11 ± 12.50 years. Dysphagia, sore throat, and neck swelling were the most common symptoms and the...
Source: North American Journal of Medical Sciences - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: research