Predisposing preventable factors in patients with bleeding due to warfarin usage: Evaluation of 114 patients.

Warfarin is one of the commonly used oral anticoagulant. The aim of our study is to evaluate the predisposing preventable factors among patients with bleeding due to warfarin usage. This study was performed on 114 cases who were admitted to emergency service for bleeding and whose ages range between 27 and 89 years. The mean time between the onset of the bleeding and admission to the hospital was 2.9 ± 3.4 days. The mean dose of warfarin being used at the time of admission was 31.2 ± 10.8 mg weekly. Only 37 cases were being controlled regularly. The mean number of the drugs being used other than warfarin was 4.8 ± 2.5 drugs. Forty-eight cases were using aspirin, 28 nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs other than aspirin and 18 cases were using various antibiotics. Forty eight patients knew that they had to use this drug under the regular follow-up of a physician and 43 knew that during monitoring a laboratory test had to be done while using the drug named as warfarin. Only 39 patients knew that this drug may cause bleeding. It was also surprising that only 9 patients knew that there may be drug interaction and 1 knew that this drug may be affected from the dietary factors. As a result, it may be concluded that most of the patients admitting to the emergency service had a lack of basic knowledge about this drug, which might invite bleeding.