Pradaxa More Dangerous than Warfarin

More research has been released that details the dangers of taking Pradaxa in comparison to older forms of anticoagulant drugs.

Dr. Mark Wurster and his colleagues analyzed the clinical records of 113 patients who had switched their treatment plan from warfarin to dabigatran – the active drug in Pradaxa. Patients who were analyzed took the drug for a mean time of nearly four months.

The study found that while there was only one medical event required drug discontinuation among patients (constituting a discontinuation rate of 0.88 percent) while they were using Warfarin, 13 medical events occurred among patients while they were taking the dabigatran (a discontinuation rate of 11.5 percent).

Furthermore, the medical events associated with dabigatran were sometimes quite serious, as one gastrointestinal bleeding event led to a patient death while other patients suffered from two GI bleeds, one rectus sheath hemorrhage, one intracranial hemorrhage, one deep venous thrombosis, one atrial thrombus, one transient ischemic attack, and one skin rash, Heartwire reported.

"The problem with dabigatran is that it has been presented as a 'fire-and-forget' medicine. That is, the doctor can write a prescription and not think about it again. But anticoagulation is not like that,” Wurster said. “Just because patients on dabigatran don't need to have regular INR measurements doesn't mean they don't need monitoring."

Wurster also commented that because newer anticoagulant drugs had shorter half-lives than Warfarin, missing 2-3 doses of the medication could be long enough to allow a major blood clot to develop. He recently presented the findings of the study at the Thrombosis & Hemostasis Summit of North America 2012.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by a dangerous drug such a Pradaxa, there may be legal options at your disposal. Call Sokolove Law today to learn more about pursuing a dangerous drug lawsuit. Call us today at (800)-561-7154.

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