Anticoagulation

You will be required to take medication which will thin your blood for as long as you have a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). The medication is called anticoagulation drugs and the main drug we use at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) is Warfarin.

Regular blood tests will be required to check how thin or thick your blood is, this is called the international normalised ratio (INR). If your INR is too low, which means your blood is too thick, we will advise you to self-administer injections into the fatty tissue in your abdomen until your INR is within an acceptable range.