Safety and Efficacy of Lean Body Weight-based IV Heparin Dosing in Obese/Morbidly Obese Patients
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
2014-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Standard weight-based IV heparin for normal weight patients is based on actual body weight
(ABW). However, no well-defined guidelines have been established for patients considered to
be obese or morbidly obese. In current practice, the calculated ABW based heparin initial
bolus dose and infusion rates are quite high, and therefore often not used for obese/morbidly
obese patients for fear of bleeding.
Heparin is distributed in the body approximately the same as blood and does not get
distributed to adipose tissue. There are some studies suggesting that lean body weight (LBW)
might be a better basis for dosing heparin. LBW is a calculated weight that excludes the
weight of fat.
The investigators hypothesize that intravenous heparin dosing based on the Lean body weight
of obese/morbidly obese patients would be safe and effective in achieving a therapeutic level
of heparin in 24 hours compared to the usual practice in this patient population.