Author: Charles Frank

Apixaban Eliquis: Uses & Side Effects

If you need emergency surgery while you’re taking Eliquis, you may be given an antidote to Eliquis to reduce your risk for bleeding. (An antidote is a drug that reverses the effect of another drug or substance.) See the “Reversing Eliquis bleeds” section above for more information about this. Taking certain HIV drugs with Eliquis can increase the level of Eliquis in your body. If you have a spinal procedure while taking Eliquis, you may develop a blood clot in your spine.

Call your doctor right away if you have serious side effects. Remember that this medication has been prescribed because your doctor has judged that the benefit to you is greater than the risk of side effects. Many people using this medication do not have serious side effects. Nausea, easy bruising, or minor bleeding (such as nosebleed, bleeding from cuts) may occur.

To learn more, see the “Eliquis and surgery” section under “Eliquis interactions” above. A generic version of Eliquis, called apixaban, has been approved. If you’re interested in using the generic version, ask your doctor if it’s an option for you.

Atrial fibrillation

Your doctor will tell you when you should stop taking ELIQUIS and when you may start taking it again. Eliquis is used to lower the risk of stroke or a blood clot in people with a heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation. Some people need to take anticoagulants during pregnancy because they have a high risk for blood clots. However, anticoagulants other than Eliquis are usually preferred. This is because more is known about the safety of using certain other anticoagulants during pregnancy than what’s known about Eliquis. Taking the antibiotic rifampin (Rifadin) with Eliquis can lower the level of Eliquis in your body.

In clinical studies, low blood pressure occurred in some people who took Eliquis to prevent blood clots after hip or knee replacement. As with most drugs, some people can have an allergic reaction after taking Eliquis. In clinical studies, allergic reactions occurred in less than 1% of people with AFib who took Eliquis to prevent blood clots. It’s not known how often allergic reactions occurred in people who took a placebo (a treatment with no active drug) in clinical studies. ELIQUIS (apixaban) is a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of stroke and blood clots in people who have atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem.

What should I tell my care team before I take this medication?

Fibrin binds platelets together to form clots, so apixaban reduces clot formation. Eliquis starts working within 3 to 4 hours after you take your first dose. However, you need to take it twice every day to make sure there’s always enough medication in your body to help stop blood clots from forming. Both drugs were similarly effective at reducing the risk of stroke caused by a blood clot. However, people who took Eliquis were less likely to have a stroke caused by a bleed in the brain compared with people who took warfarin.

1. If you need to stop taking Eliquis, your doctor may have you take a different drug to help prevent blood clots.
2. However, patients who had experienced multiple episodes of unprovoked DVT or PE were excluded from the AMPLIFY-EXT study.
3. These drugs have been directly compared for preventing blood clots and stroke in people with AFib.
4. Studies haven’t focused on the topic of weight gain from Eliquis®.
5. Rifampin should usually be avoided while you’re taking Eliquis.

It’s sometimes also called a blood thinner, although it doesn’t actually thin your blood. Instead, Eliquis works by attaching to an activated blood clotting factor, called factor Xa. Eliquis stops this clotting factor from working, which makes your blood less able to form clots.

Taking Eliquis with food

If this happens, you should continue with your usual treatment schedule. If you’d like to know more about causes of erectile dysfunction, talk with your doctor or pharmacist. This helps keep a steady level of the drug in your blood. These lists contain up to 10 of the most common mild side effects that can occur with Eliquis, with Xarelto, or with both drugs (when taken individually).

Do not stop taking ELIQUIS without talking to the doctor who prescribes it for you. Unchanged apixaban is the major drug-related component in human plasma; there are no active circulating metabolites. There is no clinical experience to reverse bleeding with the use of 4-factor PCC products in individuals who have received ELIQUIS. It does not require antithrombin III for antithrombotic activity.

Large amounts of vitamin K are found in certain foods, such as green leafy vegetables. People taking warfarin shouldn’t make big changes to their dietary intake of vitamin K. Rifampin should usually be avoided while you’re taking Eliquis. If you need to take this antibiotic, talk with your doctor about safe treatment options. Unlike certain other pain relievers, Eliquis doesn’t interact with Tylenol.

If you miss a dose of Eliquis, take it as soon as possible. You should not take two doses at once to make up for a missed dose. The usual dosage of Eliquis to prevent DVT or PE from recurring is 2.5 mg taken twice a day.

If you experience joint pain or swelling after surgery, talk with your doctor right away. To learn about consuming certain other foods and beverages with Eliquis, see the “Eliquis interactions” section above. Separate studies have found both Eliquis and Xarelto to be effective for all of these uses.

There are no data on the presence of apixaban or its metabolites in human milk, the effects on the breastfed child, or the effects on milk production. Apixaban and/or its metabolites were present in the milk of rats (see Data). Because human exposure through milk is unknown, breastfeeding is not recommended during treatment with ELIQUIS. Monitor patients frequently for signs and symptoms of neurological impairment (e.g., numbness or weakness of the legs, or bowel or bladder dysfunction).