Contributor: Ricky Dhaliwal, MD, JD

Educational Pearls:

• Tranexamic acid (TXA) as shown to have mortality benefit to patients with traumatic GI hemorrhage but should it be used to achieve hemostasis in atraumatic GI bleeding?
• HALT-IT study looked at TXA for the treatment of upper and lower GI hemorrhage and found no 5 day mortality benefit
• Patients given TXA also had higher occurrences of DVT and PE

References

Roberts I, Coats T, Edwards P, et al. HALT-IT--tranexamic acid for the treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials. 2014;15:450. Published 2014 Nov 19. doi:10.1186/1745-6215-15-450

Summarized by Jackson Roos, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD