INFORMATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Home | Consumers | Health Professionals | Regulatory | Other | Hot Topics | Search
Home | Consumers | Health Professionals | Regulatory | Other | Hot Topics | Search
Web
site: October 2006
Prescriber Update 2006;27(2):23-24.
Ruth Savage, Medical Assessor, CARM, New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre, Dunedin
Local and international case reports provide evidence of an interaction between oral tramadol and warfarin in some individuals, leading to an elevated International Normalised Ratio (INR) and in some instances bruising or haemorrhage. The mechanism has not been determined. The interaction usually occurs 3-4 days after tramadol is commenced in patients stabilised on warfarin. The decrease in INR after tramadol is withdrawn may take several days. Where it is necessary to prescribe tramadol with warfarin there should be close monitoring of the INR, especially during the first week of treatment with tramadol.
CARM reports show marked increases in INR
Published case reports provide further evidence
Similar reports in Australia
The interaction may occur in a sub-group of patients
Increased INR monitoring necessary when tramadol prescribed
with warfarin
References
CARM reports show marked increases in INR
Up to 31 July 2006, the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM) had
received a total of 116 reports of suspected adverse reactions to tramadol.
Three of these reports were of increased International Normalised Ratio (INR),
ranging from 7.0 to 12.3 occurring when oral tramadol was given to patients
taking warfarin. Two patients were symptomatic: one with petechiae and one
with melaena. Onset time after tramadol was commenced was one, two and
seven days. A fourth patient taking warfarin was found to have bruising
and a haematoma eight days after commencing tramadol.
The extent to which tramadol contributed to the elevated INR in the four patients is not entirely clear as one patient may have taken an incorrect dose of warfarin and the other three were also prescribed antibiotics. However, tramadol seemed the most likely cause in two of these cases.
Published case reports provide further evidence
Firmer evidence of an interaction with oral tramadol can be found in two
published case reports.1,2 A
76-year-old man had been on a stable dose of warfarin for six months when he
developed purpura and was found to have an INR of 7.3. He had been taking
tramadol 50mg three times daily for one month. There had been no other
changes to his prescribed medication, and he had not taken any over-the-counter
medicines.1 A 61-year-old woman on a stable
regime of medicines including warfarin had recently finished taking tramadol
50mg six hourly for two weeks. She presented with extensive bruising of
the right upper arm, and was found to have an INR of 10.6. Warfarin was
withheld for three days until her INR reduced sufficiently for the warfarin to
be reinstated, although initially a lower dose was required.2
Similar reports in Australia
Case reports published in 2004 by the Australian Adverse Drug Reactions
Advisory Committee (ADRAC) detail 11 reports of elevated INR or haemorrhage when
tramadol was taken with warfarin.3 The median
onset time after addition of tramadol to stabilised warfarin therapy was four
(range 3-7) days, with the exception of one outlier at six weeks. Five
reports described recovery within 1-4 days of tramadol being discontinued, with
or without reduction in the dose of warfarin. Two patients, aged 76 and 88
years, died of haemorrhagic stroke.
The interaction may occur in a sub-group of patients
In a pharmacodynamic study4 of the effect of
oral tramadol on INR in 19 patients stabilised on phenprocoumon (a coumarin
anticoagulant), two patients had clinically significant increases in INR to 6.0
and 7.3, respectively, while taking tramadol. However, the mean difference
in INR for all participants did not reach statistical significance. The
mechanism of the interaction is unclear, but these results suggest that the
interaction may be associated with a variation in metabolism and that only a
sub-group of patients will be affected. This possibility is supported by
the small number of case reports in the Australian database compared with total
prescriptions for oral tramadol.3
Increased INR monitoring necessary when tramadol
prescribed with warfarin
Although the mechanism has not been elucidated, there is evidence for an
interaction between oral tramadol and warfarin in some, but probably not all,
individuals. The CARM case reports, where antibiotics were also
implicated, are a reminder that more than one interaction may be occurring.
The interaction between tramadol and warfarin is documented in the product
information for tramadol.5-7
It is unclear whether the interaction occurs with injectable tramadol.3
Close monitoring of the INR should be undertaken when it is necessary to prescribe tramadol for patients taking warfarin, especially during the first week of treatment with tramadol.
Competing interests (author): none declared.