Thrombophilia Effect On Periprocedural Thromboembolism and Bleeding in Chronically Anticoagulated Patients

Appropriate periprocedural management of the chronically-anticoagulated patient with an inherited or acquired thrombophilia is uncertain.

To estimate the 3-month cumulative incidence of thromboembolism (TE) and major bleeding and test thrombophilia as a potential predictor of these outcomes among chronically-anticoagulated patients undergoing a procedure.

2182 consecutive patients referred to the Mayo Thrombophilia Center for standardized peri-procedural anticoagulation management were followed for TE, major bleeding and survival. The three-month cumulative incidence rates for TE, major bleeding and death were estimated by Kaplan-Meier analyses. For each chronic anticoagulation indication, we tested “strong” thrombophilia (antithrombin, protein C or protein S deficiency, homozygous or combined heterozygous Factor V Leiden or prothrombin G20210A), ”weak” thrombophilia (heterozygous Factor V Leiden or prothrombin G20210A), lupus anticoagulant/antiphospholipid antibodies and bridging heparin as potential predictors of TE and major bleeding using Cox proportional hazards modeling.

Patients with thrombophilia tended to be younger with a slight female predominance. Compared to no thrombophilia, thrombophilia patients (n=202; 143 bridged with heparin) had similar rates of venous (0% vs. 0.5%; p=0.34) and arterial (0.5% vs. 0.5%; p=0.94) thromboembolism, major bleeding (2.0% vs. 2.0%; p=0.97) and mortality (1.5% vs. 2.2%; p=0.52). Among thrombophilia patients, the TE and major bleeding rates were similar for strong (n=29) or weak thrombophilia (n=99), or lupus anticoagulant/antiphospholipid antibodies (n=74). Similarly, among thrombophilia patients, bridging heparin did not affect the rates of major bleeding (2.1% vs. 1.7%; p=0.85) or TE (0.7% vs. 0%, p=0.52).

Inherited or acquired thrombophilia does not appear to impact the rates of TE, major bleeding or mortality after temporary interruption of chronic anticoagulation for an invasive procedure.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.