Anticoagulation and the elderly head trauma patient

We sought to determine the effect of anticoagulation therapy on outcomes in elderly patients with closed head injury. We retrospectively reviewed elderly closed head injury patients (> or = 65 years) comparing 52 patients on warfarin (AC) with 439 patients not on warfarin (NAC) with subsequent 1:3 propensity matching used to analyze comparable groups. The overall AC group had a higher head abbreviated injury score (AIS) (4.0 +/- 0.7 vs 3.8 +/- 0.7, P = 0.04) compared with the NAC group. After propensity matching, 49 AC patients were compared with 147 NAC patients who were similar for age, gender, injury severity score, and head AIS. Admission INR was higher in the AC group compared to the NAC group (2.5 +/- 1.3 vs 1.1 +/- 0.3, P < 0.0001) and the AC group had a higher mortality rate (38.8% AC (19/49) vs 23.1% NAC (34/147), P = 0.04). In the AC group, survivors and nonsurvivors had similar repeat International Normalized Ratio (INR) values (1.57 +/- 0.65 survivors vs 1.8 +/- 0.72 nonsurvivors, P = 0.31). The AC group experienced greater morbidity after trauma and had higher mortality rates than their NAC counterparts. Prevention of injury and more selective use of warfarin in this patient population are essential to decrease mortality.