Background: For patients taking warfarin and undergoing pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator surgery, clinical evidence and guidelines support continuation of warfarin therapy, as opposed to interruption of warfarin therapy with heparin bridging. Interruption of warfarin without post-operative bridging therapy may be a feasible alternative but data is sparse.
Methods: This is a single-arm observational study including adults who had interruption of warfarin therapy without post-operative bridging therapy for cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) surgery performed between 2010 and 2019 in a tertiary referral hospital. The primary outcome was a composite of all-cause mortality, arterial or venous thromboembolic events. The secondary outcomes were clinically significant device-pocket hematoma and other procedural complications.
Results: Of the 411 patients analysed including 257 patients (62.5%) who had mechanical heart valves, the primary outcome developed in 5 (1.2%) patients within 30 days after surgery, including death in 3 (0.7%) patients, transient ischemic attack in 1 (0.2%) patient and non-CNS embolism in 1 (0.2%) patient. Clinically significant hematomas occurred in 24 (5.8%) patients, including 15 (3.7%) requiring additional interruption of anti-coagulation and 6 (1.5%) requiring clot evacuation. Other procedural complications and bleeding events were rare (< 1%).
Conclusions: Warfarin interruption without post-operative bridging therapy for CIED surgery was associated with low thromboembolic risks and acceptable bleeding risk. Randomized controlled trials are required to formulate an optimal approach to anti-coagulation management.