Bleeding due to blood thinners and antibiotics

Blood thinners and antibiotics taken together are risky

01/17/2014

Blood thinners inhibit the coagulation of the blood. For example, they are prescribed for heart rhythm disorders or thrombosis. In addition to patients taking antibiotics at the same time, this increases the risk of bleeding drastically. Cologne scientists came to this conclusion in the evaluation of health insurance data of 24 million insured persons of the AOK.

Simultaneous use of antibiotics and blood thinners increases the risk of bleeding 2.4 times
Those who take blood thinners and antibiotics at the same time are more than twice as likely to be bleeding. For certain antibiotics, the risk is even increased by a factor of five. This resulted in a study by Dr. med. Sascha Abbas and dr. Ingrid Schubert from the University of Cologne and her colleagues. The researchers analyzed the AOK data of insured persons treated for bleeding in the years 2006-2010. "We have used routine data from the health insurance companies, which are actually charged for billing," Abbas told the newspaper "Die Welt". In this way, the scientists could consider the real care situation and did not have to resort to clinical studies.

Out of 500,000 patients prescribed Phenprocoumon medication, 14,000 had to be treated for bleeding in a clinic. "We compared the cases with a bleeding event and those without a bleeding event in terms of whether the patient had additional antibiotics," said Abbas. The researchers concluded that concomitant use of blood thinners and antibiotics increases the risk of bleeding 2.4-fold. "Depending on the active ingredient of the antibiotic, it may even be higher," said the physician.

Certain antibiotic groups increase the risk of bleeding particularly strong
As it turned out, the risk of a bleeding episode increases by the simultaneous intake of blood thinners and certain antibiotic groups particularly strong. For example, Abbas and Schubert found that the fluoroquinolone group is at least three times as likely to be at risk as it is to have five times the risk of ofloxacin. Although the interactions of blood thinners and antibiotics are already known, the researchers recommend taking these into account even more in the future in view of the alarming study results. "If possible, use antibiotics that are associated with lower bleeding risks," advised Abbas. "Patients should also be aware of the risk and inform doctors that they are taking blood thinners." The study by the Cologne scientists was published in the journal "Thrombosis and Haemostasis".

Frequently drug interactions
At the beginning of last year, a survey by the AOK Scientific Institute (WIdO) revealed that every sixth drug prescription carries the risk of dangerous interactions with another drug. According to this, older persons with several illnesses are particularly at risk. Above all nursing home residents would be prescribed dosages and combinations of medicines that could be described as bodily harm, wrote the "Rheinische Post" at that time. According to the study, three out of every thousand patients received a drug mix that could have fatal consequences. In 3.5 percent of the cases threatened serious health consequences reported the newspaper.

According to WIdO, doctors are especially required to observe and avoid risky drug interactions when prescribing medicines. Physicians would therefore also better informed, which over-the-counter means a patient in addition to the medically prescribed einnehmme. (Ag)