Remaining on blood thinners post Watchman procedure

I'm interested in knowing more about the deciding factors on why a person will stay on a blood thinner for the long-term vs. not staying on a blood thinner, post Watchman procedure.

I decided to stay on half dose of eliquis just for peace of mind. I'm glad I did because I just had my first episode of afib in almost a year after my third ablation

In 18' after Dr. Natale implanted the FLX and after the 45 day protocol I asked to stay on half dose Eliquis, instead of low dose aspirin. I did for about a year, when for reasons unknown to me, he was fairly adamant about dropping Elliquis and taking up low dose aspirin. Which is what I have done to this day. I need to ask, but I suspect the reasons are for life style choices I made when I was younger and more related to my overall CV health. I think the protocol can vary among patients based on a variety of circumstances. For what it's worth, my local EP was even more adamant about taking ld aspirin than was Dr. Natale.

AB just trying to make clear: you went to 81 aspirin after the 45 days?

Sorry misread. You were given the option and did 1/2

I was given the option of aspirin, 1/2 dose Eliquis, or take nothing. The "official" FDA protocol is aspirin for life, but to my knowledge there's no good data supporting that. And in Europe the practice has been to take nothing, so what is the FDA basing it on? It seems to be more a "we need to do something" line of thinking.

After consulting with Natale, my PCP, and my local EP, the opinions were unanimous: continue 1/2 dose Eliquis. The rationale actually has little to do with the Watchman. That probably doesn't need anything, but I am a CHADS 2 and the LAA isn't the only source of clots. My PCP said he would have prescribed low-dose aspirin for me even without afib and without a Watchman, but Eliquis is safer than aspirin so that's why he (and the others) recommended Eliquis.

I'm a little surprised Natale wanted AB on aspirin because he usually prefers Eliquis, but he must have had his reasoning and it must have been specific to AB.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2022 11:47PM by Carey.