Intraoperative use of recombinant activated coagulation factor VII. [Editorial]

This is an editorial describing two case reports and a letter in that issue of Anesthesiology describing the effective use of rFVIIa during and after surgery to control bleeding which did not respond to standard therapy with transfusion of blood products. These patients were not known to have previous coagulopathy. The author, however, mentions that reports of effectiveness of rFVIIa in non-hemophilia patients are anecdotal, and that until results of randomized trials are available patients with excessive bleeding associated with surgery should be treated with conventional measures with blood products, and it would be reasonable if such measures fail to use rFVIIa as rescue therapy.

– Maadh Aldouri