Aspirin versus anticoagulation for stroke prophylaxis in blunt cerebrovascular injury: a propensity-matched retrospective cohort study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to compare the odds of stroke 24 hours or more after hospital arrival among patients with blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI) who were treated with therapeutic anticoagulation versus aspirin. METHODS The authors conducted a retrospective cohort study at a regional level I trauma center including all patients with BCVI who were treated over a span of 10 years. Individuals with stroke on arrival or within the first 24 hours were excluded, as were those receiving alternative antithrombotic drugs or procedural treatment. Exact logistic regression was used to examine the association between treatment and stroke, adjusting for injury grade. To account for the possibility of residual confounding, propensity scores for the likelihood of receiving anticoagulation were determined and used to match patients from each treatment group; the difference in the probability of stroke between the two groups was then calculated. RESULTS A total of 677 patients with BCVI receiving aspirin or anticoagulation were identified. A total of 3.8% (n = 23) of 600 patients treated with aspirin sustained a stroke, compared to 11.7% (n = 9) of 77 receiving anticoagulation. After adjusting for injury grade with exact regression, anticoagulation was associated with higher likelihood of stroke (OR 3.01, 95% CI 1.00–8.21). In the propensity-matched analysis, patients who received anticoagulation had a 15.0% (95% CI 3.7%–26.3%) higher probability of sustaining a stroke compared to those receiving aspirin. CONCLUSIONS Therapeutic anticoagulation may be inferior to aspirin for stroke prevention in BCVI. Prospective research is warranted to definitively compare these treatment strategies.