Oral Surgery in Patients Taking Direct Oral Anticoagulants and Vitamin K Antagonists

Vitamin K antagonists (VKA) are widely used in long term prevention and treatment of thromboembolism. In the last few years direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are available for clinical use, mostly in prevention of stroke and systemic embolisms in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, and prevention and treatment of venous thrombosis. Numerous studies confirmed that minor oral surgical procedures in patients taking VKA with therapeutic (International Normalized Ratio) INR levels can be safely performed without therapy interruption if proper local haemostatic measures are applied. Similar recommendations were given for the dental treatment of patients taking DOACs, but there is a lack of clinical studies. The aim of this study is to assess the incidence of bleeding complications after oral surgery in patients who continue their DOACs or VKA medications.