Aprotinin, a drug used for limiting blood loss in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, is associated with an increased risk of death during five years following the surgery, according to a new study in the February 7 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Aprotinin was first approved for use in high-risk patients needing coronary artery surgery in the United States in 1993. As background information in the article, the authors state that more than 4 million patients worldwide have received aprotinin since 1985, principally during cardiac surgery. Annual use has increased to 600,000 patients (2005) throughout the world, including 246,000 uses in the United States in the past year. The safety of aprotinin came under scrutiny in 2006. An "observational study reported that aprotinin use was associated with a doubling to tripling of the risk of perioperative renal [kidney] dysfunction and failure requiring dialysis in patients undergoing primary, repeat or complex coronary artery surgery."
Dennis T. Mangano, Ph.D., M.D., from the Ischemia Research and Education Foundation, San Bruno, Calif., and colleagues assessed survival rates at six weeks, six months and annually for five years for 3,876 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery at 62 medical centers around the world. The researchers examined death rates of these patients according to the use of three medications used to lessen bleeding?aminocaproic acid and tranexamic acid, aprotinin, or no anti-bleeding agent.