Hemorrhage during long-term anticoagulant drug therapy. 1. Intracranial hemmorrhage.

Intracranial hemorrhage was the most serious hemorrhage as measured by death and disability, occurring during long-term anticoagulant drug therapy of 1,626 patients. Among 95 hemorrhagic episodes considered life-threatening or potentially crippling, 30 were intracranial and 56 were gastrointestinal. Over two-thirds of the patients with intracranial hemorrhage died, as against one-tenth of those with gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The incidence of intracranial hemorrhage is increased among hypertensive patients, but the results of a controlled study indicate that the incidence of intracranial hemorrhage is not affected by whether or not the hypertensive patient is receiving anticoagulant therapy. Hypertension is the important precipitating factor, not the prothrombin level. Even at excessively low prothrombin levels only one intracranial hemorrhage occurred in 337 instances. In this series, reducing coagulability to a desirable range did not increase the probability of intracranial hemorrhage. Once bleeding occurred, however, it increased the risk of death and disability.