Background: The aim of the present meta-analysis was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) versus vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients with polypharmacy.
Methods and results: Randomized controlled trials or observational studies reporting the data of NOACs versus VKAs among AF patients with polypharmacy were included. The search was performed in the PubMed and Embase databases up to November 2022. A total of 12 studies involving 767,544 AF patients were included. For the primary outcomes, the use of NOACs compared with VKAs was significantly associated with a reduced risk of stroke or systemic embolism in AF patients with moderate polypharmacy (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.77 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.69-0.86]) and severe polypharmacy (HR: 0.76 [95% CI: 0.69-0.82]), but there was no significant difference in major bleeding (moderate polypharmacy: HR: 0.87 [95% CI: 0.74-1.01]; severe polypharmacy: HR: 0.91 [95% CI: 0.79-1.06]) between the two groups. In secondary outcomes, there were no differences in the rates of ischemic stroke, all-cause death, and gastrointestinal bleeding between the NOAC- and VKA- users, but NOAC users had a reduced risk of any bleeding compared with VKA- users. Compared with VKAs, the risk of intracranial hemorrhage was reduced in NOAC- users with moderate polypharmacy but not severe polypharmacy.
Conclusion: In patients with AF and polypharmacy, NOACs showed advantages over VKAs in stroke or systemic embolism and any bleeding, and were comparable to VKAs for major bleeding, ischemic stroke, all-cause death, intracranial hemorrhage, and gastrointestinal bleeding.
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