Use of Ankaferd Blood Stopper as a hemostatic agent: a clinical experience.

AIM: To determine the efficacy of the topical application of Ankaferd Blood Stopper (ABS) on hemorrhagic diathesis following dental procedures under different conditions. BACKGROUND: Some patients have a tendency to bleed excessively after dental surgery for a variety of reasons, making oral surgical procedures more risky for these patients. Since hemorrhage can cause major morbidity and mortality, the identification of a novel, effective hemostatic agent could improve the management of excessive bleeding that occurs during dental procedures. CASE DESCRIPTIONS: Four patients (3 females, 1 male) aged 28-45 with bleeding tendencies due to different presurgical conditions such as von Willebrand Disease, chronic liver failure, and mitral valve replacement presented for tooth extraction. Hematological consultations were obtained prior to surgical intervention and their international normalized (INR) ratio values were adjusted to less than 1.5; none received clotting factor replacement. All the extractions were performed under local anesthesia with and without epinephrine. In the presence of postsurgical bleeding, the efficacy of the ampule form of topical ABS was observed. Sex, age, anamnesis, von Willebrand Factor, activated partial thromboplastin time, factor VIII, and platelet counts of patients were recorded prior to the extractions. CONCLUSIONS: ABS was found to be effective within 10 to 20 minutes in controlling bleeding in most of the patients after dental surgery. These observations suggest the use of ABS may be a beneficial hemostatic agent for use in patients with hemorrhagic diathesis following tooth extraction. Additional research is needed to clarify the role of this unique medicinal product in the surgical treatment of dental patients with bleeding tendency. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: ABS has demonstrated potential for being an effective hemostatic agent for the treatment of excessive bleeding following dental surgery in four patients with hemorrhagic diathesis.

Effect of endemic fluorosis on hematological parameters.

Although so many studies exist on effect of fluoride on hematological parameters in experimental animals, a few studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of chronic fluorosis on hematological parameters in humans' subjects with endemic fluorosis. So we aimed to determine the hematological parameters in patients with endemic fluorosis. The study group consisted of 60 patients with endemic fluorosis (27 females, 33 males, and mean age 33.4 ± 9.6 years). An age-, gender-, and body mass index-matched control group was composed of 34 healthy volunteers (11 females, 23 males with a mean age 32.6 ± 5.6 years). Urine fluoride levels of fluorosis patients were significantly higher than control subjects as expected (0.42 ± 0.09 vs 1.92 ± 0.14 mg/l, respectively; P < 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between the fluorosis group and control group with respect to hematological parameters (complete blood count and ferritin). We concluded that chronic fluorosis has no effect on hematological parameters in patients with endemic fluorosis.