Idarucizumab: what should we know?

Abstract BACKGROUND: Idarucizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody fragment acting as specific antidote for dabigatran, is approved for reversing the dabigatran-associated possible bleeding from critical sites or bleeding persisting despite local post-procedure haemostasis, moreover it can also be applied to reverse the dabigatran anticoagulant activity in emergency surgery or in other invasive procedure at high risk of bleeding. OBJECTIVE: In this manuscript, we discuss idarucizumab in light of the available literature data by conducting extensive research in the PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library on the topic, using as Mesh terms idarucizumab, dabigatran and their combinations, and focusing on high impact investigations. RESULTS: Several studies have demonstrated the capacity of idarucizumab to reverse laboratory measures of dabigatran-associated coagulopathy, however the efficacy and safety in real world patients is still not very clear because of the scarcity of available data and should be assessed with an extensive post market surveillance. CONCLUSION: The introduction of idarucizumab as dabigatran antidote in clinical practice represents a useful tool for clinicians. The possibility to rapidly restore the anticoagulation activity of dabigatran makes simpler and more manageable its use. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.