Locoregional anesthesia and drugs that affect hemostasis. Suggestions of the expert meeting in the ESRA Congress in Barcelona

Growing interest in the effect of hemostasis-altering medications on regional anesthetic techniques was analyzed recently in a review article suggesting certain safety measures, by Llau and colleages in Revista Española de Anestesiología y Reanimación. Since that review, however, it has become necessary to extend the discussion of clinical issues, based on information presented at the Eighth Local Meeting of the European Society for Regional Anesthesia (ESRA) of May 2002. There, participants debated the most controversial aspects, with attention to practical questions such as temporal safety margins and approaches to take given certain platelet antiaggregants, fibrinolytics or drug combinations. This paper faithfully presents the suggestions made by participants at the meeting. As most anesthesiologists expressed the need to set guidelines for fibrinolytics, the main issues related to those drugs in regional anesthesia are reviewed.

Published by Revista espanola de anestesiologia y reanimacion, 2002. The guideline itself is at the source linked here.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12516491/