Hemostatic Disorders Associated with Hepatobiliary Disease

Cynthia R L Webster1

  • 1Department of Clinical Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536, USA.

The liver plays a crucial role in all aspects of coagulation because most factors that regulate procoagulation, anticoagulation, and fibrinolysis are produced, cleared, and/or activated in the liver. Establishing the coagulation status of an individual patient with hepatobiliary disease can therefore be challenging. Although, classically, patients with hepatobiliary disease were thought of as potentially hypocoagulable, hypercoagulability also occurs. The article summarizes the breadth of coagulation abnormalities that have been reported in dogs and cats with hepatobiliary disease and provides strategies to respond to bleeding and thrombotic risk.

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