Randomised and non-randomised controlled trials of routine protamine administration to reverse heparin in patients after coronary angioplasty and that reported on death and major bleeding complications (primary outcomes) or myocardial infarction (secondary outcome) were eligible for inclusion. Trials were excluded where follow-up data were available in less than 90% of patients.
The protamine dose was reported as 2mg in one study; in the other studies, this was based on the heparin/anticoagulant dose. Definitions of major bleeding complications varied. There were no details for patient characteristics.
The authors did not state how many reviewers were involved in the selection of studies.