Management of dabigatran after overdosage: two case reports and suggestions for monitoring

Bleeding is the main complication of anticoagulant treatments as dabigatran etexilate. In patients with atrial fibrillation, dabigatran, at certain doses, has been associated with similar rates of stroke and embolism, and a lower rate of major hemorrhage compared to warfarin. Before the recent possibility of reversing the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran with idarucizumab, prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) was the main available treatment in cases of severe bleeding or emergency surgery . We describe two different cases with very high overdosage in which PCC or idarucizumab was used to reverse the effect of dabigatran etexilate.