Conditions: Deep Venous Thrombosis
Keywords: Deep venous thrombosis DVT Heparin induced thrombocytopenia HIT Direct thrombin inhibitor
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 120
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
A blood clot in the veins, also known as deep venous thrombosis (DVT), is one of the most common complications after surgery. This may result in death if a clot breaks off and travel to the lungs; this is referred to as pulmonary embolism (PE). After heart surgery the incidence of DVT ranges from 20-48% and following lung surgery the incidence is 19-26%. In order to decrease the likelihood of this complication, patients receive by injection a blood thinning medicine. Heparin is the usual medicine used for this purpose following heart and lung surgery. Recently there have been reports that other medicines may be more effective than heparin for this purpose. Also there have been reports that some patients develop antibodies to heparin. When this occurs, this may prevent the heparin from being effective and may even promote the formation of blood clots. Antibodies to heparin may be present more often following heart and lung surgery than other types of surgery. There is a new medicine called desirudin (Iprivask), which may be used instead of heparin to prevent blood clots following heart and lung surgery. Desirudin is currently approved by the FDA to prevent blood clots following hip surgery. The purpose of this study is to compare desirudin with heparin for the prevention of vein clots after heart and lung surgery.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: Both groups of patients will receive study drug three times a day (TID) for DVT prophylaxis. The current TID schedule is 0900, 1300, and 2100. The patients who are randomized to the Heparin (standard of care) group will receive subcutaneous injections of heparin three times a day (0900, 1300 and 2100). arm 2: Both groups of patients will receive study drug three times a day (TID) for DVT prophylaxis. The current TID schedule is 0900, 1300, and 2100. Patients who are randomized to the desirudin (study) group will receive 15 mg of subcutaneous desirudin twice a day (at 0900 and 2100). These patients will also receive an injection of normal saline placebo at 1300 so that patients in both groups will receive three injections at the same time points.

Interventions: intervention 1: Desirudin (Iprivask™) intervention 2: Heparin
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Patients who are randomized to the desirudin (study) group will receive 15 mg of subcutaneous desirudin twice a day (at 0900 and 2100). These patients will also receive an injection of normal saline placebo at 1300 so that patients in both groups will receive three injections at the same time points. intervention 2: The patients who are randomized to the Heparin (standard of care) group will receive subcutaneous injections of heparin three times a day (0900, 1300 and 2100).

Protocol document: