Frequency of Major Hemorrhage in Patients Treated With Unfractionated Intravenous Heparin for Deep Venous Thrombosis or Pulmonary Embolism

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Abstract
THE MOST important adverse effect of initial intravenous unfractionated heparin (UFH) therapy of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) is major hemorrhage. In a large number of randomized clinical trials, the efficacy and safety of intravenous continuous UFH treatment has been compared with intravenous intermittent UFH treatment,1-6 treatment with subcutaneously administered UFH,7-14 and low-molecular-weight-heparin (LMWH).15 The overall average of major hemorrhage rates in the continuous intravenous UFH groups in these studies was 3.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.0%-4.6%) (widely varying between the studies from 0% to 20%).