Last April Dr. Adnan I. Qureshi reported on research, at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, that has shown that atrial fibrillation patient’s who are taken off of warfarin for surgical procedures have an increased likelihood of having a stroke.

Subjects included in the analysis had atrial fibrillation plus at least one additional risk factor for stroke or death: age >65 years, systemic hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, transient ischemic attack, prior stroke, left atrium diameter 50+ mm, left ventricular fractional shortening <25%, or left ventricular ejection fraction <40%.

Specifically atrial fibrillation patients who discontinued warfarin for surgical procedures had a 1.1% rate of stroke while atrial fibrillation patients who remained on warfarin had a 0.2% rate of stroke.

Read more here:

Warfarin withdrawal in atrial fibrillation patients awaiting surgery dramatically ups stroke risk

Well, this seems like one of those articles where you read the headline and think, “Duh!” Like the article about how obese children have a higher chance of hypertension – No kidding?

Obviously if you are on a medication, in this case warfarin, to prevent having a stroke, and you stop taking the medication, well, you have an increase likelihood of having a stroke. I think everybody suspected this – but what we see here is that the rate of stroke increases five-fold. Wow – that seems incredible!

This article reinforces my strong belief that strict compliance with taking my medications, especially warfarin, is a good idea!

As far as surgery is concerned, clearly, if you need to have the surgery and you need to go off the warfarin, then so be it. The article didn’t mention anything about bridging with Lovenox. You might want to ask your surgeon about that. And also – consider how important the surgery is to your general health. Is the surgery truly necessary? Is it worth risking a stroke?