Back to Trasylol®

A recent Trasylol® study reported that the drug increases a patients' long-term risk of dying by nearly 50%.

A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association states that almost 10,000 deaths worldwide could be avoided over the next five years if Trasylol® were not used.

The data suggested that Trasylol® was unnecessary for most patients because safer and cheaper alternatives are available. Trasylol® (aprotinin injection) is used to control bleeding during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery.

Dr. Dennis T. Mangano, lead author of the study, said Trasylol® should be restricted to patients with the highest risk of bleeding complications.

The study was the latest to question the safety of Trasylol®, which was approved for use in 1993.

Last year, Dr. Mangano and other researchers linked Trasylol® to a higher risk of kidney failure, stroke, and heart attack. Following that the published report, the FDA added a warning to the product label about kidney failure.

The study examined records of nearly 3,900 patients who had CABG surgery. Researchers compared patients who received Trasylol® with those who received an alternative drug to control bleeding or took no drug at all.

After five years, 20.8% of patients who received Trasylol® died, compared with 12.7% who received no medicine. According to researchers, patients who received Trasylol® had a 48% higher risk of death over five years compared with patients who received no drugs to control bleeding. The disadvantages of Trasylol® remained after accounting for factors such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

Trasylol® was used in 200,000 CABG surgeries last year, according to the report, a substantial decline from 2005, when the drug was used in 600,000 surgeries.

If you or someone you know has undergone a coronary artery bypass grafting surgery and subsequently developed the onset of kidney failure, please use the form on the left to contact our law firm.

Reference:

"Study finds dangers in heart-surgery drug," LAtimes.com, Denise Gellene, February 2007.