Rivaroxaban for the treatment of consumptive coagulopathy associated with a vascular malformation

The localized activation of coagulation in vascular malformations can lead to a consumptive coagulopathy characterized by elevated D-dimers and a consumption of fibrinogen and platelets, eventually giving rise to a bleeding tendency. By reducing coagulation activation, anticoagulant treatment with heparin is able to limit this haemostatic dysregulation and the associated bleeding diathesis. Here, we present a case of a consumptive coagulopathy due to a large venous malformation with a sustained correction of the fibrinogen depletion and associated bleeding tendency both with subcutaneous enoxaparin and with the oral factor Xa inhibitor rivaroxaban.