Blood thinner manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis is more beneficial for paralyzed patients who are at high risk of suffering from a second blood clot, a study published in the journal Lancet reveals.
Since a long time, patients who have suffered strokes are treated with blood thinners. However no study has been conducted to find which technique is more beneficial for the patients. A team of doctors, led by Dr David Sherman of the University of Texas Health Science Center, conducted a study to test the efficacy various blood thinners including Lovenox (enoxaparin), which is manufactured by Sanofi.
The study included over 1,762 patients who had suffered from ischemic stroke, in which the blood flow to the brain is cut off by a clot. Patients suffering from such a stroke have around 50 percent risk of a second blood clot, either in their lungs or in their legs.
Dr Sherman said that around half of the patients were administered a daily dose of enoxaparin injections while the other half were given unfractionated heparin injections two times a day. At the end of the study, researchers found that those patients who were administered with enoxaparin injections were 43 percent less likely to get a second blood clot than those who were given the traditional treatment.
"Enoxaparin pretty convincingly appears to work better. Now that the results have been published, the question is, what will the bodies that write guidelines for management of stroke do? Because the results are so consistent, my guess is that the guidelines will say that stroke patients should be anticoagulated and that, because enoxaparin appears to be most efficient, it will become the standard", Dr Sherman said.
