Effect of antithrombotic therapy to the head injury

Abstract

Here we investigated the differences in clinical charac­teristics between head injury patients with and without pre­injury antithrombotic therapy to clarify its effect to the clinical course and out­come. A total of 779 patients from January 2015 to December 2018 were included in this study. There were 60 patients with preinjury anti­throm­botic therapy. Patients’ characteristics, symptoms, and clinical findings on hospital arrival, surgically treated or not, and modified Rankin Scale at dis­charge were com­pared. Patients’ age and rate of fall related injury were significantly higher in patients with preinjury anti­throm­botic therapy. They also had significantly more patients who talked and deteriorated (T&D), higher rate of surgical treatment, and worse clinical outcome, although Glasgow Coma Scale on hospital arrival showed no difference. Preinjury antithrombotic therapy significantly increase the rate of T&D and surgical treatment. These findings highlight the effect of preinjury antithrombotic therapy on treating head injury and the importance of close observation and neutralization of antithrombotic drugs.