Key result
Anticoagulation management at the end of life requires individualized decision-making that balances symptom burden, bleeding and thrombosis risks, and patient priorities.
Why the study?
Managing anticoagulation at the end of life requires balancing symptom burden, elevated bleeding and thrombosis risks, comorbidities, and evolving care goals.
This review provides a framework for individualized decision-making regarding starting, continuing, or stopping anticoagulation in patients with VTE or AF at the end of life.
End-of-life anticoagulation decisions in VTE and AF warrant individualized frameworks; extends case-based guidance while leaving open prospective validation.
Nearly 2 out of 3 patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) and 1 out of 4 patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) will die within the year. Whether, when, and how to manage anticoagulation at the end of life requires many trade-offs. Patients and clinicians must balance symptom burden, greatly elevated bleeding and thrombosis risks, competing comorbidities and medications, and changing goals over time. This review uses cases of VTE and AF to present a framework for care that draws upon existing disease-specific data and cutting-edge palliative care science. It reviews strategies for the difficult task of estimating a patient's prognosis, characterizes the enormous public health burden of anticoagulation in serious illness, and analyzes the data on anticoagulation outcomes among those with limited life expectancy. Finally, an approach to individualized decision-making that is predicated on patients' priorities and evidence-based strategies for starting, continuing, or stopping anticoagulation at the end of life are presented.
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Anna L. Parks (2024) conducted a review in Venous thromboembolism (VTE) and atrial fibrillation (AF). Anticoagulation was evaluated. Anticoagulation management at the end of life requires individualized decision-making that balances symptom burden, bleeding and thrombosis risks, and patient priorities.
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