COMPLICATIONS OF LOWER EXTREMITY HEMATOMAS IN PATIENTS WITH PRE-INJURY WARFARINE USE.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this paper is to ascertain the number of patients with pre-injury warfarin use who developed lower extremity hematomas treated in our facility, to analyse the data, used treatment methods and outcomes in these patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective review, identifying all the patients with pre-injury Warfarin use admitted with hematoma or full-thickness skin loss in the ten years period from January 2006 to December 2015.

RESULTS: Overall 9 women and 2 men with mean age of 72 years were identified. All the injuries were sustained in a domestic setting. Except of one female patient primarily admitted to our department, all patients had been hospitalized primarily in local/regional hospitals for an average period of 32.6 days. All the patients transferred to our department required surgical wound closure. The mean wound surface area was 136.3cm² (range 45-525). The duration of hospital stay was 15 days in average.

DISCUSSION: The data obtained were compared with the results and findings of similar studies and were discussed.

CONCLUSION: The results achieved in the present study showed the beneficial effect of used treatment methods based on the surgical wound closure techniques during hospital stay of the patients. Clinicians, first contact physicians, and also patients alone need to be aware of the vulnerability of this group of patients. The consequences of even minor lower extremity trauma can be serious, with development of a very complex chronic wound that is difficult to manage.