Pradaxa is in a group of oral anticoagulants that began to be marketed in 2010 to compete with the older drug warfarin. For about six decades, warfarin had been the go-to anticoagulant, with no serious competition from other drugs.

Warfarin had its drawbacks, however. It required frequent blood tests and dosage adjustment to maintain the right level in the body.

Pradaxa and the other new blood thinners were developed specifically so that patients could avoid those repeated blood draws.

Certain Pradaxa side effects also supposedly occur less frequently than other blood thinner side effects, and it was promised to have fewer interactions with food and other drugs.

Whether the drug is old or new, blood thinner side effects include a risk of causing internal bleeding such as a hemorrhagic stroke, or of aggravating the bleeding caused by an external injury.

The same risk can complicate plans for surgery: bleeding that happens during surgery can be exacerbated if an anticoagulant is still actively inhibiting the blood’s ability to clot.

Pradaxa and Its Half-Life

Pradaxa patients suffering a bleeding injury or needing surgery have had to simply wait for the drug to wear off through a few of its half-lives.

A drug’s half-life is a measure of how long the drug stays active in a patient’s body. One half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of the current, active amount of the drug to be removed from the body.

Pradaxa has a half-life of 13 hours. For most patients, that means Pradaxa’s anticoagulant effect wears off within one to two days of taking the last dose.

Most surgeries with a normal risk of bleeding can be performed once the majority of Pradaxa is out of the patient’s body – generally about 24 hours after the patient’s last dose.

That amount of time may be longer for patients with kidney problems. This is because the body relies on the kidneys to remove Pradaxa from the bloodstream, and impaired kidney function means Pradaxa is removed more slowly.

For these patients to undergo surgery with a normal bleeding risk, Pradaxa may have to be discontinued two or more days prior to initiating surgery. If the surgery presents a exceptionally high risk of bleeding, it may be necessary to wait until all the drug has left the body – possibly as long as five days or more.

With the older anticoagulant warfarin, excessive bleeding wasn’t as much of a problem. Excessive bleeding in a patient taking warfarin can be controlled by administering vitamin K.

Until recently, patients taking Pradaxa did not have the benefit of an available antidote.

When Pradaxa was introduced to the market in 2010, there was no available antidote that could reverse its anticoagulant effect in case of emergency.

That meant that Pradaxa patients who suddenly suffer internal bleeding or need emergency surgery would have simply had to wait for Pradaxa side effects to wear off before the bleeding could be controlled.

It wasn’t until October 2015 that an antidote for Pradaxa, called Praxbind, was finally approved by the FDA. For the years preceding that approval, Pradaxa patients simply lived with the risk of bleeding that might not be controllable by medication.

If you, or someone you love, was affected by Pradaxa you may have a case for legal recompense. A qualified Pradaxa lawyer may be able to help you with a free case evaluation.