Management of patients receiving anticoagulants is a major factor in achieving better outcomes. Anticoagulant therapy may need to be discontinued or rapidly reversed before urgent surgery or invasive procedures. In these situations, treatment with concentrated vitamin K, fresh frozen plasma, and/or clotting factors can achieve more rapid anticoagulant reversal than can drug discontinuation alone. Activated prothrombin complex concentrate is used to treat hemophiliac patients with acquired factor VIII inhibitors. Nonactivated prothrombin complex concentrates are used for anticoagulant reversal. The concentrates are effective within minutes of dosing, providing a nearly immediate decrease in the international normalized ratio. The concentrates are lyophilized powders that can be quickly reconstituted, do not require ABO blood typing before use, and contain 25 times the concentration of vitamin K–dependent clotting factors compared with fresh frozen plasma. Studies suggest that the concentrates are associated with better clinical end points than is fresh frozen plasma.
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