Enjoy our chat with Dr. Sam Schulman as Dr. Schulman talks about his and the researchers working with him's findings on the management of bleeding disorders and of blood thinners during surgery
1. In layman’s terms, can you describe the contribution your research has made to the issues surrounding bleeding disorders and use of blood thinners used during surgery. Please describe the problem you’ve addressed and the impact of what you have discovered.
The new blood thinners that are starting to replace warfarin (Coumadin) act in a different way and therefore you need to stop and restart them differently when patients have surgery. Physicians have been unsure of how to do that and it is important to demonstrate the optimal timing for this. If the blood thinner is stopped too early before surgery, the patient can suffer a stroke or a new blood clot in the lungs or legs. If it is stopped too late, they can bleed more during surgery. same problem after surgery. Our results show how this should be done safely with a very low risk for both bleeding and stroke.
2. What will physicians and surgeons learn from your studies and how might they employ these findings?
By publishing the result in a high-impact journal like Circulation and also lecturing on this we hope our colleagues will adopt our strategy and establish local hospital guidelines or policies based on these results.
3. We are certain that many will be interested in the results of your research, but can you also explain what prompted you to focus on this area and, more specifically, what triggered the revelation that led to this breakthrough?
When new drugs are approved some questions are addressed by the studies performed before registration. But many hugely important issues are left for studies such as ours to answer afterwards.
4. Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about this work?
The study was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and recruited almost twice as many patients as originally planned, which strengthens the results.
Thanks Dr. Schulman for your work and the sharing of this information on The Hamiltonian.
