Cerebral sinus thrombosis and oral contraceptives

BMJ 1998;317:483-484 ( 22 August )

Editorials

Cerebral sinus thrombosis and oral contraceptives

There are limits to predictability

Clinical review p 520

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In short succession two recently published papers have shown not only a very high relative risk of cerebral sinus thrombosisin users of oral contraceptives but an even stronger effect ofcontraceptives among women who carry hereditary prothromboticconditions. ¹ ² This raises several questions: Why this suddenwave of publications? Why the very high relative risks? What arethe lessons for clinical practice and prevention?

The field of investigation into oral contraceptive use and the occurrence of venous thrombosis has been undergoing a rapidparadigm shift over the past couple of years. That oral contraceptivesmay cause venous thrombosis has been known since the 1960s, butever since there have been controversies about the size of therisk, the role of bias in observational research, the role ofhormonal dosage, the type of hormones implicated, and $---$ particularly $---$ theglaring absence of any biochemical explanation. Some have evendoubted the reality of . . . [Full text of this article]

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BMJ 1998 317: 520-523. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]