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Abstract
Background and Objectives Usage of oral anticoagulants (OACs) or adenosine diphosphate inhibitors (ADPi) is known to increase the risk of bleeding. We aimed to investigate the impact of OAC and ADPi therapies on short-term outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Methods All adult patients hospitalized for TBI in Finland during 2005–2018 were retrospectively studied using a combination of national registries. Usage of pharmacy-purchased OACs and ADPi at the time of TBI was analyzed with the pill-counting method (Social Insurance Institution of Finland). The primary outcome was 30-day case-fatality (Finnish Cause of Death Registry). The secondary outcomes were acute neurosurgical operation (ANO) and admission duration (Finnish Care Register for Health Care). Baseline characteristics were adjusted with multivariable regression, including age, sex, comorbidities, skull or facial fracture, OAC/ADPi treatment, initial admission location, and the year of TBI admission.
Results The study population included 57,056 persons (mean age 66 years) of whom 0.9% used direct OACs (DOACs), 7.1% vitamin K antagonists (VKA), and 2.3% ADPi. Patients with VKAs had higher case-fatality than patients without OAC (15.4% vs 7.1%; adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.35, CI 1.23–1.48; p < 0.0001). Case-fatality was lower with DOACs (8.4%) than with VKAs (aHR 0.62, CI 0.44–0.87; p = 0.005) and was not different from patients without OACs (aHR 0.93, CI 0.69–1.26; p = 0.634). VKA usage was associated with a higher neurosurgical operation rate compared with non-OAC patients (9.1% vs 8.3%; adjusted odds ratio 1.33, CI 1.17–1.52; p < 0.0001). There was no difference in operation rate between DOAC and VKA. ADPi was not associated with case-fatality or operation rate in the adjusted analyses. VKAs and DOACs were not associated with longer admission length compared with the non-OAC group, whereas the admissions were longer in the ADPi group compared with the non-ADPi group.
Discussion Preinjury use of VKA is associated with increases in short-term mortality and in need for ANOs after TBI. DOACs are associated with lower fatality than VKAs after TBI. ADPi were not independently associated with the outcomes studied. These results point to relative safety of DOACs or ADPi in patients at risk of head trauma and encourage to choose DOACs when oral anticoagulation is required.
Classification of Evidence This study provides Class II evidence that among adults with TBI, mortality was significantly increased in those using VKAs but not in those using DOACs or ADPi.
Glossary
- ADPi=
- adenosine diphosphate inhibitor;
- aHR=
- adjusted HR;
- aOR=
- adjusted OR;
- ANO=
- acute neurosurgical operation;
- ATC=
- Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical;
- DOAC=
- direct oral anticoagulant;
- FXai=
- factor Xa inhibitor;
- HR=
- hazard ratio;
- ICD-10=
- International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision;
- IQR=
- interquartile range;
- OAC=
- oral anticoagulation;
- OR=
- odds ratio;
- TBI=
- traumatic brain injury;
- VKA=
- vitamin K antagonist
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org/N for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Submitted and externally peer reviewed. The handling editor was Rebecca Burch, MD.
Class of Evidence: NPub.org/coe
Infographic NPub.org/1pdj52
- Received November 22, 2021.
- Accepted in final form April 22, 2022.
- © 2022 American Academy of Neurology
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