Varying Risk for Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding with Different Anticoagulants

To evaluate how risk for upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleeding varies with different anticoagulants, researchers conducted a retrospective study of more than 1.6 million Medicare patients (mean age, 76) who began anticoagulant therapy from 2011 through 2015. About 75% of patients also received concomitant proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy. Analyses were stratified by standard risk scores for gastrointestinal bleeding.

All results were reported as incidence of hospitalization for UGI bleeding per 10,000 person-years of use. The rate for patients who did not receive concomitant PPI therapy was 115, compared with 76 for those taking PPIs. Rates varied by anticoagulant: Rates for patients not taking PPIs were 144 for rivaroxaban, 120 for dabig…