Atrial fibrillation
The assessment of the
thrombosis risk in patients with atrial fibrillation has not been prospectively
validated using any specific criteria. Some observational studies propose that
simply interrupting warfarin has a low incidence of post operative thrombosis1,
but others have used a risk stratification based on the CHADS2 score to identify
high risk patients2; patients with
score <3 have a low risk of thrombosis and those with a score of 5 or 6
are at high risk. One limitation of this stratification is that individual
factors may strongly influence risk, for example a patient with a prior stroke
could have a score of only 2 but should be regarded as high risk.
Risk of Thromboembolism With Short-term Interruption of
Warfarin Therapy .
David A. Garcia, MD; Susan Regan, PhD; Lori E. Henault, MPH; Ashish Upadhyay, MD;
Jaclyn Baker, MD; Mohamed Othman, MD; Elaine M. Hylek, MD, MPH
.
Arch Intern Med.
2008:168;:63-69.