Proper pharmaceutical advice for anticoagulated patients

Why are anticoagulants actually necessary? We all have respect for blood and bleeding wounds, but at the same time anticoagulants are indispensable. After all, heart attacks, strokes and pulmonary embolisms are the most common causes of death in the western world.

Anticoagulants are not only indicated for orthopaedic operations or after a heart attack, they also play a major role in prophylaxis. Take, for example, the most common cardiac arrhythmia in adults, which affects almost two million people in Germany: atrial fibrillation. From the age of fifty, the risk of developing the disease increases significantly. A well-known and feared consequence of atrial fibrillation is stroke. And in patients with atrial fibrillation, the risk of stroke is five times higher - which is why anticoagulation is used here. Reasons enough to take a closer look at heparins, coumarins and NOACs and to brush up on the necessary advice.

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