Congestive heart failure anticoagulants
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
- The annual incidence of systemic and pulmonary embolism in patients with heart failure is 2-5%. This is not that dissimilar from the risk of severe bleeding among patients to its anticoagulants which is 0.8-2.5% per year.
- As a result anticoagulation is not routinely recommended in the current guidelines for the treatment of heart failure. However among those patients with a atrial fibrillation, a history of emboli, or multiple intracardiac thrombi, or akinesis or dyskinesis detected on echo should be anticoagulated.
- While hospitalized, patients with CHF should receive DVT prophylaxis