[Safety of emergency surgical procedures in patients with pathological values in Quick's test]

In clinical practice doctors are frequently faced with the necessity of rapidly influencing a prolonged prothrombin time (Quick's test) in a patient who will have a surgical operation or invasive examination. After establishment of the cause of the prolonged prothrombin time the doctor has the following possibilities: if a planned operation is involved, anticoagulation treatment can be discontinued or vitamin K administered by the oral route, in urgent conditions virus-inactivated vitamin K concentrate dependent coagulation factors can be administered. Every transfusion is associated with the risk of transmissions of disease (hepatitis, HIV and others). Therefore it is better to use these concentrates rather than fresh frozen plasma-FFP.