Anticoagulation Management

To perform safe invasive procedures on patients on anticoagulation therapy, management of the patient's anticoagulation status is mandatory. For patients on anticoagulation therapy, a risk analysis of both the procedural risk of bleeding as well as the risk to the patient from discontinuing anticoagulation needs to be performed. For procedures at low risk of bleeding, the procedure may be performed with little change to the patient's anticoagulation regimen. For procedures with significant bleeding risk, however, anticoagulation will need to be held or reversed. Patients at high risk for thromboembolic complications will require bridging therapy if anticoagulation is to be withheld. In this article, a logical assessment of bleeding risk in patients undergoing procedures is presented, and a review of anticoagulation and risk is discussed.