Vioxx role in heart attack

A recent study proved that Vioxx may lead to blood clots, heart attack and strokes.

Vioxx is a medicine that may be associated to other serious side effects such as stomach problems, allergic reactions, serious kidney problems or liver problems. About these serious, life threatening problems we are about to talk in the following paragraphs.

As we said before, serious stomach problems might be associated with Vioxx usage. These problems refer at stomach and intestinal bleeding that may occur without developing any warning symptoms. If these problems are severe they might lead to long time hospitalization or even death. Even if it is well known that these problems occur rarely it is strongly recommended to watch for signs and let your doctor know right away.

The second major problems that might be the cause of Vioxx usage are the allergic reactions that consist of swelling of face, lips, tongue or throat. These problems will lead to a difficult breathing or swallowing. Even if these side effects occur rarely they require an immediate treatment.

Kidney problems might also be one of the side-effects caused by Vioxx. Just like the other problems mentioned earlier, kidney problems also occur rarely but when they occur it may lead to acute kidney failure and worsening of chronic kidney failure.

Liver problems generally occur in patients that take NSAIDs. If symptoms of liver problems occur the patients must quickly see a specialist. These liver problems include nausea, tiredness, itching, tenderness in the right upper abdomen and flu-like symptoms.

As we mentioned before, these severe problems occur rarely. More common than the problems mentioned earlier are other side effects caused by Vioxx usage such as upper and/or lower respiratory infection and/or inflammation, headache, dizziness, diarrhea, nausea and/or vomiting, heartburn, stomach pain and upset, swelling of the legs or feet, high blood pressure, back pain, tiredness or urinary tract infections. These non life threatening side effects caused by Vioxx usage are not severe as the first mentioned side effects but they do require treatment or even hospitalization.

It is known that Vioxx represents a generation of arthritis drugs. Vioxx and other drugs of its generation are called COX 2 inhibitors.

It was proved that the risk of developing heart attack, stroke or blood clots is two times higher for people that use Vioxx than in people that chose as their treatment other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The study on which result is based the affirmation done earlier involved 8000 patients.

After other studies, specialists noticed that the rate of heart attack in patients that take Vioxx is higher than for others. 0.52 % of the patients taking an inactive placebo pill had a heart attack each year, while for Vioxx users the annual rate of heart attack was about 0.74 %.

The studies concluded that Vioxx should be prescribed carefully.