Pradaxa Approved
Subject: Pradaxa
A new anticoagulant was recently approved for use to
prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. The
drug is called Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate).
It is expected that a significant number of
a-fib patients may begin taking this drug as part of
their stroke prevention care in the future.
The importance of this drug is there is no
reversal agent available as there is for other
anticoagulants. This could be problematic during the
hospital management of some patients, such as those with
multitrauma. Therefore, it will be helpful if EMS and
other healthcare providers recognize the drug name and know
that it is an anticoagulant. If a patient is taking
the drug, please let the receiving hospital staff know
during your reports to ED staff.
The FDA's press release on Pradaxa can be found at
http://wwwfda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm230241.htm.
Additional information on Pradaxa from Boehringer
Ingelheim, the manufacturer, can be found
at http://www.pradaxapro.com/.
(Thanks to Mark Huckaby at Grant LifeLink for bringing this
to our attention.)
NOTE: The Division of EMS
does not endorse products or services. The contents
of this e-mail are provided as a service to the EMS
community.
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