Hematology and Oncology

I am coming up on my two year anniversary. Not my wedding anniversary (soon to be 15 years – thanks Maia!), but two years since I joined the ranks of the patients. It was two years ago this week that my day was interrupted by a page from my internist saying, “I don’t know how […]

  As you can see, no glamour shots for this month’s post. I knew it would come at some point, and my first hospitalization related to my CLL came in a big way in mid-July. Given my interest in global health, it was only fitting that I managed to get sick while out of the […]

This large multicenter trial randomized patients with acute VTE to apixaban (10mg BID for 1 week, followed by 5mg BID for 6 months) versus conventional therapy (lovenox-warfarin). The primary outcome was similar between groups (symptomatic VTE or death related to VTE), but major and minor bleeding occurred significantly less often with apixaban. Apixaban is a […]

This study assessed the characteristics and outcomes of patients with subsegmental and proximal PEs, and found they were similar, including cumulative death rates of 10% and 6%, respectively. Subsegmental PEs carry the same risks as proximal PEs and should be treated as such (abstract).

This trial randomized post-THA patients to dalteparin or ASA for 28 days (after 10 days of dalteparin) and found no significant difference in VTE or bleeding rates. After 10 days of dalteparin, 28 days of ASA is safe and effective for VTE prevention post-THA (abstract)

In this trial of patients on warfarin undergoing a pacer/ICD procedure, they were randomized to continue warfarin perioperatively, or receive heparin bridge therapy. The study was stopped early when the heparin group suffered 4 times more device pocket hematomas than the warfarin group. Based on this well done trial, warfarin should be continued perioperatively in […]