Managing anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs in patients who are receiving neuraxial anesthesia and epidural analgesia: a practical guide for clinicians

Managing patients who are receiving anticoagulant or antiplatelet drugs and are undergoing surgery with neuraxial anesthesia, is a common and challenging clinical problem because for many of these drugs there is no reliable laboratory test to measure whether an anticoagulant or antiplatelet effect is present. In patients who are to receive neuraxial anesthesia, normalized hemostasis is required to minimize the risk for epidural hematoma. This …