Rivaroxaban can be beneficial to patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) who undergo surgical lower extremity revascularization (LER), according to new findings published in Circulation.
The study’s authors tracked 2,185 PAD patients who had LER surgery and another 4,379 PAD patients who underwent an endovascular or hybrid procedure. All data came from the VOYAGER PAD trial.
According to their analysis, the combination of rivaroxaban and aspirin led to a lower rate of major adverse limb and cardiovascular events (18.4%) compared to a placebo and aspirin (22%). Also, rivaroxaban resulted in more bleeding events overall, but the rates were still low. Also, the number of post-procedural bleeding, intracranial bleeding and fatal bleeding events did not increase.
“PAD patients are at high risk of limb and cardiovascular events in spite of the use of available risk reduction therapies and strategies to reduce this risk are needed,” wrote first author E. Sebastian Debus, MD, PhD, with the University of Heart & Vascular Center Hamburg Department of Vascular Medicine in Germany, and colleagues. “In contrast to previous trials of anticoagulation with warfarin, which have not shown benefit, VOYAGER PAD has now demonstrated a robust benefit and net benefit for the combination of rivaroxaban 2.5mg twice daily with aspirin in surgical patients.”
Read the full study here.