Reinitiation of Anticoagulation After Temporary Withdrawal of Vitamin K Antagonist

It is not known how to best restart warfarin after temporary withdrawal. Participants will be randomized to two groups. Group 1 will restart warfarin at their usual maintenance dose, group 2 will restart warfarin at double their maintenance dose for two days followed by their usual maintenance dose. The main outcome parameter will be the number of patients who are back in therapeutic INR (international normalized ratio) range 4, and 9 days after restarting anticoagulation with warfarin. Thromboembolic and/or bleeding events will be recorded as additional parameters. These data will be collected by a standardized telephone interview at 1 month. In addition, the investigators will evaluate a possible prothrombotic state by measuring the potential of thrombin generation and D-dimers in the subset of patients visiting HHS-General Hospital for their INR tests.