Do NOACs reduce stroke, systemic embolism, and bleeding compared to VKAs in patients with atrial fibrillation and polypharmacy?
In atrial fibrillation patients with polypharmacy, NOACs offer superior efficacy for stroke/systemic embolism prevention and lower risk of any bleeding compared to VKAs, with comparable rates of major bleeding and death.
In patients with AF and polypharmacy, NOACs showed advantages over VKAs in stroke or systemic embolism and any bleeding, and were comparable to VKAs for major bleeding, ischemic stroke, all-cause death, intracranial hemorrhage, and gastrointestinal bleeding.
Zheng et al. (Mon,) studied this question.