The effectiveness and safety of the use of antithrombotic therapy in COVID-19

Abstract

The article is a non-systematic review of the literature, addressing the effectiveness, safety and appropriateness of antithrombotic drugs for COVID-19 in patients undergoing treatment in different settings: in the hospital phase, including the intensive care unit, in the outpatient phase after discharge from hospital, in primary outpatient treatment. The issues of thrombotic complications during vaccination and the necessity of their prevention are discussed. The studies confirm the importance of prophylactic doses of anticoagulants in all hospitalized patients. The use of increased doses has proven ineffective in patients with a severe course of the disease who are being treated in the intensive care unit. In moderately severe infections, there is a clear benefit of increased doses of anticoagulants in reducing the risk of organ failure, but definitive conclusions can only be drawn after the final results of the studies have been published. Prolonged pharmacological prophylaxis after hospital discharge may be useful in individual patients, but the overall risk of thrombotic complications in the long-term period does not appear to be high. The available data do not support the use of anticoagulants in the treatment of coronavirus disease in the outpatient settings, since the risk of thrombotic complications is not increased in such patients, and the safety of anticoagulant use has not been evaluated. Sulodexide may be useful in selected outpatients at increased risk of disease progression. Vaccination may provoke the development of atypical localized thrombosis by immune mechanisms, but the risk of such complications is lower in the coronavirus disease itself. Anticoagulant prophylaxis during vaccine administration is not indicated.

Keywords

• covid-19
• coagulopathy
• venous thrombosis
• pulmonary embolism
• anticoagulants