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DOI: 10.1160/TH09-12-0822
Oral vitamin K effectively treats international normalised ratio (INR) values in excess of 10
Results of a prospective cohort studyPublication History
Received:
06 December 2009
Accepted after major revision:
19 February 2010
Publication Date:
23 November 2017 (online)
Summary
Unanticipated elevation of the INR is common in patients receiving warfarin. We performed a prospective cohort study of 107 warfarintreated patients with INR values of more than 10 who received a single 2.5 mg dose of oral vitamin K. During the first week, one patient experienced major bleeding, and one died. In the first 90 days after enrolment four patients had major bleeding (3.7%, 1.0% to 9.3%), eight patients (7.5%, 3.3% to 14.2%) died and two had objectively confirmed thromboembolism. Based on our low rate of observed major bleeding we conclude that 2.5 mg of oral vitamin K is a reasonable treatment for patients with INR values of more than 10 who are not actively bleeding.
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