Aim

To establish the relationship between blood pressure (BP) level and post-exodontic hemorrhage by applying local hemostasis measures in patients under warfarin treatment.

Materials and methods

This study was conducted in 30 patients (15 men and 15 women) under oral anticoagulant (OAC) treatment with warfarin. The patients attended the TACO program of the “Hospital y Centro de Referencia de Salud el Pino (HEP y CRS)”. One or two dental extractions (n=38) were performed in the patients that had an INR lower or equal to 3, without suspending the oral anticoagulant treatment, applying local hemostasis measures with compressive gauze and/or suture in 30 of the extractions. The surgical procedure was carried out in the Dental Department of the CRS and HEP. The following variables were registered: 1) BP prior to extraction, 2) BP after 30 minutes, 3) presence or absence of hemorrhage after 30 minutes post-exodontia and 4) BP and presence or absence of hemorrhage 24 hours post-exodontia. The relation between BP level and post-exodontic bleeding was studied.

Results

Considering all the examined patients, none of them presented post-exodontic hemorrhage at any of the different moments of evaluation, regardless of their BP level. No effect of the BP variable –considering a range of systolic BP (SBP) below 140 mmHg and a diastolic BP (DBP) under 90 mmHg- was found in relation to post-exodontic hemorrhage.

Conclusion

According to the results obtained in this study, blood pressure with SBP<140 mmHg and DBP<90 mmHg is not an influential factor in post-exodontic bleeding in patients under warfarin treatment with ≤3.