Questionable Drug Used In Iraq

The drug, Recombinant Activated Factor VII, is supposed to be used for people with a rare form of hemophilia. But according to reports, U.S. and Israeli military doctors have been a little more generous in their use of Factor VII. Which has raised concerns with trauma doctors around the world.

(Balt Sun)Factor VII, a powerful blood coagulant that is still approved only for treating hemophiliacs, has been administered to more than 1,000 wounded American troops in Iraq and more than 300 bombing victims in Israel since then, which has caused trauma specialists around the world to rethink conventional strategies for hemorrhage control and blood transfusions. While no large clinical trials have been conducted, anecdotal stories of the drug's life-saving effectiveness can be found throughout the medical literature.

But Factor VII's buzz among some trauma doctors, who see it as a rare breakthrough in their decidedly low-tech specialty, is countered by the concern and even outrage among many hematologists and blood specialists who think that the drug is killing patients by creating blood clots that travel to the heart, brain and lungs.

The Chicago Tribune also has an article by the same author that talks more specifically about Iraq.