One hundred million prescriptions are written in the U.S. for non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) and a further billion NSAID tablets are sold over the counter annually. You know…that Advil that you have in your medicine cabinet. Many people also take 1 aspirin per day. The most common use for these drugs are for arthritis symptoms and to prevent stroke and heart attack in the elderly.

So the question is…can people stay on these medications before getting diagnostic tests done such as an endoscopy or colonoscopy? Or are these patients at higher risk for blood clots if they avoid these pain relievers and anti-clotting drugs before these invasive procedures? The standard treatment has been to stop these medications 10 days before procedures to avoid excess bleeding.

Does an aspirin per day increase the risk of bleeding during invasive diagnostic procedure? This is an important concern for many patients who take these and other antiplatelet agents in an effort to reduce heart attacks or strokes. Researchers at the MUHC have shown that antiplatelet drugs do not contribute to post-endoscopic bleeding. [click link for full article]…

Read the rest of this post from Medical News Today

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