Some Florida Hospitals Don't Use Trasylol®
Patients having heart surgery at Winter Haven Hospital or Lakeland Regional Medical Center don't need to ask their surgeons whether they use Trasylol®.
Doctors at both Florida hospitals stopped using Trasylol® (aprotinin) last year after research studies said it increased the possibility of kidney failure, kidney damage, stroke, and heart attacks in patients receiving it, hospital representatives said.
That action preceded the recent report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which stated that Trasylol® could raise the risk of dying almost 50 percent five years after surgery.
Trasylol® is one of several drugs that can be used to prevent bleeding during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. The future of aprotinin remaining on the market is uncertain. The Food and Drug Administration has not pulled Trasylol® off the market, although FDA officials ordered stronger warning labels for it in December of 2006.
Reference:
"Lakeland, Haven Hospitals Don't Use Anti-Bleeding Drug Aprotinin," TheLedger.com, Robin Williams Adams, February 2007.
