Critical Care

Treatment

For management of peri-operative bleeding complications and emergency bleeding, factor concentrates control bleeding while prothrombin complex concentrate restores specific coagulation factors that are missing or depleted. Fibrinogen concentrates replace a major protein involved in clot formation and help control bleeding in patients with extensive blood loss. Factor XIII concentrate replaces factor XIII (fibrin stabilizing factor) in congenital and acquired bleeding disorders where it is missing or deficient.

Other products are used in shock and trauma settings. A concentrate containing antithrombin, an inhibitor of clotting, is used to treat excessive systemic coagulation due to sepsis (severe infection), trauma or gynecological complications. Another critical care product, streptokinase, is used in the treatment of heart attacks to dissolve small clots in coronary blood vessels.

Albumin, the most abundant protein in human blood plasma, is used to support blood volume and blood pressure in the treatment of shock or sepsis and to replace blood proteins lost from severe burns. It is also used during cardiac surgery, to augment fluid replacement therapy and to treat certain liver disorders.

C1-INH concentrate is a plasma-derived intravenous therapy containing the protein (C1-esterase inhibitor) that is missing or defective in patients with hereditary angioedema (HAE). Without C1-INH, patients with HAE suffer from recurrent episodes of rapid swelling of areas of the skin and underlying tissues including the face, mouth and throat. In rare circumstances, these episodes can be life-threatening.