Knee sugery with plavix and heart

[Missy]

Husband surgeon and cardiologist disagree on how long to have him off plavix and ecotrin for surgery.

Surgeon says he needs him off 12 to 14 days preferable will settle for 6 off i on and 6 off.

Cardiologist says 7 for plavix and 3 for aspirin but has agreed if they let him have the one day in middle that it would help. He is upset.

I am on dial up in remote area (although they have DSL right down the road)
It is very time consuming to sort though all the material.
I need help on guidelines for
removal of knee prosthesis that is possibly infected and insertion of antibiotic spacer.

All I have been able to find is seven days and I need help gathering information. And advice.

Thanks

 

[lcwhitney]

I would trust a surgeon's judgement over any cardiologist.For just sinus surgery I had to be off any type of blood thinner for 6 weeks.
Lettitia

 

[Jkm7]

I agree. I go with surgeon's recommendation. He is the one who knows best how much bleeding to expect.

 

[Missy]

Thanks, so far that is what he is doing but it is like a catch 22. Kind of scary. It has to be done.

 

[BackDoc]

always defer to the surgeon. He will be the one in the OR, not the cardiologist.

 

[Dennis S]

I think it may be a more complicated decision than simply deferring to the surgeon. I base this on my experience when preparing for a tooth extraction. Some of the best oral surgeons in town were adamant on ceasing warfarin before the surgery. That was based on what they had been taught when they pursued their academic training.

I talked to a younger Oral Surgeon who stated that things had changed, and the best minds in the field no longer required cessation of warfarin. The point is not that warfarin needn't be stopped in this case for some unknown time. My point is that understandings of what are the best procedures in this area have been changing.

If you feel the surgeon is knowledgeable and up to date as far as warfarin is concerned I would probably defer to him. However, this is a serious decision, and I would try (as in fact you are already doing) to get enough outside information to make an informed decision.

 

[Jkm7]

This is slightly different in that OP asked about plavix and ecotrin (coated aspirin) but not warfarin.