30/07/2026
Thanks to self-management of anticoagulation, hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide who are treated with vitamin K antagonists have become “specialists in their own field.” In doing so, they also significantly reduce the costs of anticoagulant treatment for health insurance providers.
“In this meta-analysis of NOACs versus phenprocoumon, the former were found in a pooled analysis to be associated with a higher overall risk of mortality and a higher risk of thromboembolic events on the one hand, but a lower risk of major hemorrhages on the other hand. Warfarin was the comparator drug in all of the clinical trials that led to the approval of NOAC. The findings of this meta-analysis cast doubt on the benefit of the preferential use of NOACs in countries where phenprocoumon is the standard VKA.”
Direct Oral Anticoagulants Versus Phenprocoumon: Mortality, Thromboembolism and Major Hemorrhage. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Routine Data Studies. C Engelbertz, H Reinecke, J Köppe - Deutsches Arzteblatt International, 10 Jul 2026, 123(14):arztebl.m2026.0064 https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.m2026.0064