Medicines used to ‘thin the blood‘ are called anticoagulants, that means – medicines that reduce blod clotting. They are usually given for one of the following reasons:
    • prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation,
    • in patients with artificial heart valves and
    • treatment of pulmonary embolism or venous thrombosis.
    We currently use 2 types of these drugs in outpatient practice, one of which is warfarin and the other is the so-called DOAC (direct oral anticoagulants).
    Although these two drug groups differ mainly in terms of setting up and monitoring treatment, they have much in common:
    • Reduction of clotting is a desirable effect of these drugs, but it prolongs the clotting time even in case of injury. Therefore, it is important to avoid activities that have an increased risk of injury (eg. contact sports, different types of jumps…)
    • Medicines that have a low risk of damaging the gastric mucosa / stomach ulcers must be used to treat pain. Commonly used pain medications (ibuprofen, diclofenac, indomethacin) are inappropriate.
    Any medicines may interact with anticoagulation medicine you are taking, which may reduce or increase their effect. Therefore, it is essential that all physicians treating the patient are informed that they are taking anticoagulants.