Peter Kent

Trasylol Story A Sea Change For Medical Community

Trasylol-Aprotinin, an injectable drug used to stop bleeding for patients undergoing surgical procedures such like heart or kidney disease, was once praised as being a perfectly safe drug. However, additional studies and research proved otherwise causing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to warn doctors of the adverse side effects of the drug that include renal failure.

How does a drug marketed by a pharmaceutical giant go from superstar to scapegoat in a matter of mere months? That's what doctors who use the injectable drug Trasylol-Aprotinin are asking themselves after recent revelations that the drug, which is used to stop bleeding in 60 percent of heart surgery patients, causes side effects such as kidney failure, heart attack, encephalopathy, stroke and even death.

The drug, which is manufactured by Bayer AG and was approved in the United States in 1993, had been questioned in a January 2006 report by the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that Trasylol upped the risk of kidney failure after heart surgery by 259 percent and linked the drug with renal failure and future heart attacks.

Singing Its Praises

Ironically, the drug had been mentioned in The Washington Post in early January 2006 as an example of a drug so safe that it no longer required clinical study. The article stated that Trasylol dropped the risk of blood transfusions in bypass patients by one-third and that after only 12 of 64 clinical studies, its advantages were clear. The article also included information that suggested if scientists had used the previous results of the drug, which were positive, then additional clinical trials would not have been necessary.

Tides Turn for Trasylol

The above article ran on January 2, 2006. However, once the New England Journal of Medicine study on Trasylol-Aprotinin was published on the risks of approximately 1,000 heart surgery patients, the drug's use began to diminish. Once the study was published, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began investigating the alleged side effects and, even after protests by Bayer officials claiming the results of the study were inaccurate, the FDA began discouraging the use of Trasylol-Aprotinin among patients.

Though Bayer has tried to discredit this study and market the drug for other procedures (including hip replacement surgery), lawsuits have begun to flow in as more and more patients have been found who have experienced detrimental side effects from the use of Trasylol-Aprotinin in their heart surgeries.

Have You Suffered Side Effects?

Gaining the perspective of an experience pharmaceutical attorney who can consult you on your experience with Trasylol-Aprotinin will allow the potential for monetary compensation for the costly medical bills attributed to these damaging side effects. It is advisable to speak with an experienced Trasylol lawyer who can consult on the details of a lawsuit and potential monetary compensation.

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