IN-LABORATORY REMOVAL OF FEMORAL SHEATH FOLLOWING PROTAMINE ADMINISTRATION IN PATIENTS HAVING INTRACORONARY STENT IMPLANTATION

After coronary stent implantation, antithrombotic therapy is required; however, the specific drug combination to use is still under debate.( 1) The ideal regimen should avoid subacute stent thrombosis and hemorr hagic complications and allow an early hospital discharge. The purpose of this study is the evaluation of the safety and efficiency of neutr alizing circulating heparin with protamine administration immediately after coronary stent implantation. We hypothesized that the in-laborat ory removal of the femoral sheath could reduce groin complications and would shorten the postprocedural period of bed rest and hospital stay after stent implantation. To test this hypothesis, our study compares , in a randomized way, the hospital course of patients with early shea th removal after protamine administration with those in which the femo ral sheath was removed after the complete spontaneous disappearance of heparin activity.