For any patient on blood thinners, we do NOT routinely stop the blood thinner prior to surgery. This may seem surprising to many people.
The reason why we elect NOT to stop blood thinners for most office-based surgeries is a choice between two negative consequences:
One, NOT stopping the blood thinner can result in a higher chance of post-operative bleeding.
Two, stopping the blood thinner carries the risk of having a blood clot with a high risk of stroke. (There are indeed cases where this has happened).
Of these two negative consequences, we choose the former option as the issue of bleeding is temporary and much less severe than that of having a stroke.
For any patient on Xarelto or Coumadin or Eliquis or anything else, we don't routinely stop normal dosing. For a patient on Coumadin, we ask for the recent INR to know if it is which clinical range.
99% of the time in this office, patients have not complained of postoperative bleeding, and 100% of the time in the office, patients have not complained of a postoperative stroke.