title: Perioperative Considerations and Management of Patients Receiving Anticoagulants.
abstract: Anticoagulants remain the primary strategy for the prevention and treatment of thrombosis. Unfractionated heparin, low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), fondaparinux, and warfarin have been studied and employed extensively with direct thrombin inhibitors typically reserved for patients with complications or those requiring interventions. Novel oral anticoagulants have emerged from clinical development and are expected to replace older agents with their ease to use and more favorable pharmacodynamic profiles. Increasingly, anesthesiologists are being requested to anesthetize patients who are on some form of anticoagulants and hence it is important to have sound understanding of pharmacology, dosing, monitoring, and toxicity of anticoagulants. We searched the online databases including PubMed Central, Cochrane, and Google Scholar using anticoagulants, perioperative management, anesthetic considerations, and LMWH as keywords for the articles published between 1994 and 2015 while writing this review. In this article, we will review the different classes of anticoagulants and how to manage them in the perioperative settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Safiya Imtiaz
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Shaikh
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: R Vasantha
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Kumari
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Ganapati
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hegade
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marutheesh
keywords: Anesthetic considerations; anticoagulants; low molecular weight heparin; perioperative management