Trasylol Patients and Clinical Trial Subjects Beware

Thirteen years ago, the FDA approved Trasylol (aprotinin) for use in patients undergoing heart bypass surgery. In January 2006, doctors, consumer advocates and a medical research group called for the removal of the drug from the market after a study found it to have deadly side effects.

Since Trasylol was approved, an estimated 1 million people world-wide have received the drug. The new study published in the January 26, 2006 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), found patients who received Trasylol (aprotinin) have experienced potentially deadly side effects including:

• 
  A twofold increase in kidney failure
  
• A 48-percent increase in risk of heart attack
  
• A 109-percent increase in heart failure
  
• A 181-percent increase in stroke