Does aspirin provide a favorable risk-benefit ratio for thromboprophylaxis?
Aspirin provides a net benefit for thromboprophylaxis in high-risk patients, but its indiscriminate use in low-risk individuals should be discouraged due to bleeding risks.
Aspirin is often perceived either as a harmless panacea or as a useless poison which causes endless, needless trouble. We have carefully reviewed the literature on all aspects of aspirin and find that neither view is justified. Regular use of even low-dose aspirin (150 mg/day or less) may lead to clinically-important adverse events, particularly haemorrhage. The risk of such an event is considerably outweighed by the benefit for patients with a significant risk of a thromboembolic event. For individuals without a clear risk of thrombosis or thromboembolism, the balance is more even: indiscriminate aspirin-taking is to be discouraged.
Jan E. Dickinson (1998) studied this question.