Potential for replacing warfarin with a direct oral anticoagulant for endoscopic mucosal resection in the colorectum: A multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of apixaban replacement (AR) as an alternative to heparin bridging (HB) in patients taking warfarin and scheduled for endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) in the colorectum.

Methods: This trial was conducted at seven institutes in Japan between May 2016 and May 2018. Enrolled patients had been taking oral warfarin and were diagnosed within 3 months with colorectal polyps for which EMR was indicated. Patients were randomly assigned to receive HB or AR. The primary endpoint was the incidence of postoperative bleeding. Secondary endpoints were the length of hospital stay, therapeutic endoscopy outcomes, and adverse events.

Results: The planned sample size was 160 patients, but due to a decrease in the number of patients taking warfarin, the target number of cases could not be achieved within the case enrollment period, 44 cases were enrolled. They were divided into HB and AR groups. The incidence of postoperative bleeding was 15% (3/20) in HB and 0% in AR (P = 0.199). The total number of postoperative bleeding events was five in HB and none in AR. The length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in AR than in HB (median: 3.0 vs. 13.5 days, < 0.001). There were no serious adverse events and no cerebral infarction/systemic embolism events.

Conclusion: AR for colorectal EMR may prove safe and has the potential to shorten hospital stay and reduce medical costs, though we were unable to evaluate the primary endpoint due to insufficient sample size.