TOPTBI

Traumatic Brain Injury patients are typically given blood thinning medications to reduce the chances of developing blood clots and to improve their long-term function outlook and quality of life. Some doctors start blood thinning medications within 72 hours from injury, but other doctors prefer to delay giving these drugs for 5 days or more or not give them at all as they are worried that the drugs may increase the risk of further bleed in the brain. However, several studies have shown that following TBI, giving blood thinning medication within 72 hours of injury does not increase the risk of further bleeding.

This study is designed to compare the timing of giving blood thinning medication following TBI and to guide the best practices in the future for starting blood thinning medication in order to reduce the rate of blood clots, without introducing complications from further bleeding. In this trial, we will be comparing the early initiation of blood thinning medications (within 72 hours from injury) to late initiation (deferred by a minimum of 120 hours from injury or not given at all if deemed clinically unnecessary by clinical team).