According to information from a new Swedish study, for most AF patients, the benefits outweigh the intracranial bleeding risks when taking anticoagulant medications like Multaq. These types of medications are used to prevent strokes. The study was published online in Circulation on April 18, 2012.

“In short, when managing patients with AF, we essentially need to ask the question ‘who are the patients with bleeding risks that exceed the risk of ischemic stroke?’. Indeed, the present study only managed to identify a very small minority (consisting of 0.4 percent of all patients) where this was the case,” the authors wrote.

It has been stated that patients with AF who are at risk of developing thromboembolic episodes are very similar to those who are at risk of bleeding that is related to the anticoagulant medication, says Dr. Leif Friberg with the Karolinska Institute and Danderyd University Hospital in Stockholm. As a means of discovering which AF patients could benefit from these medications, researchers analyzed information from 182,678 Swedish patients. Generally drugs like Warfarin and Multaq have been used for this purpose, but Warfarin has been proven safer than Multaq.

Multaq, in fact, has been proven to be extremely dangerous. When taking Multaq, patients often develop liver failure and a worsening of their heart condition, which is why the drug is no longer being prescribed unless all other medications prove useless. Friberg and colleagues have concluded that more AF patients should be offered oral anticoagulant treatment like Warfarin over Multaq and have suggested that “an alternative and simpler approach to the anticoagulation issue could be to regard anticoagulation as the general rule for all AF patients, with exception for patients at very low risk of stroke.”

If you or a loved one have developed liver failure or a worsening of your heart condition after using Multaq, contact attorney Greg Jones today for a free consultation. I am experienced at fighting Multaq lawsuits and may be able to help you recover money for your injuries.