Prothrombin complex concentrate administration timing in warfarin-associated intracranial hemorrhage

Guidelines recommend "rapid" and "urgent" reversal of anticoagulation for warfarin-associated intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) treatment; however, they do not specify goals for time-to-administration. There are limited studies evaluating time to reversal, or international normalized ratio (INR) correction, on hematoma expansion and outcomes in intervals of <4 h. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of 4-factor prothrombin concentrate (4F-PCC) time-to-administration on rates of achieving effective hemostasis, determined by hematoma expansion, for treatment of warfarin-associated ICH.

This was a retrospective, observational, single center study performed at a large community teaching hospital. Patients were stratified into three groups based on time of CT diagnosis of ICH to administration of 4F-PCC: <45 min, 45-90 min, and >90 min. The primary outcome was rates of achieving effective hemostasis in each group defined as a ≤20% increase in hematoma volume as estimated by a radiologist.

A total of 227 patients were screened for inclusion with ultimately 39 being included. Baseline characteristics were similar between groups. The primary outcome was not significantly different among groups stratified by time to 4F-PCC administration of <45 min, 45-90 min, and >90 min (85.7% vs 73.3% vs 90%, p value 0.514). There was no difference among secondary outcomes between groups including in-hospital mortality, hospital length of stay (LOS), and intensive care unit LOS.

There was no association with time-to-administration of 4F-PCC on rates of hemostasis achievement, defined as hematoma expansion of ≤20%, identified in this study.