TEG Talk: Sometimes the Entire Picture Matters

The liver transplant patient was bleeding, and no one knew why. The attending physician at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), in Charleston, suspected the patient was breaking down clots too quickly and wanted to give him an antifibrinolytic agent. But if a rapid breakdown was not the culprit, an antifibrinolytic could render him prothrombotic, putting him at risk for stroke, embolism or deep vein thrombosis, cautioned Melanie Smith, PharmD, a surgery/trauma ICU