Comparison Of A Vitamin K Iv Vs. Po

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin your body requires for normal blood clotting. Medical professionals commonly recommend this supplement to treat a variety of medical conditions. Vitamin K comes in different presentations for therapeutic use: oral, intravenous, subcutaneous and intramuscular. Vitamin K IV is the intravenous form, and vitamin K PO is an oral form of vitamin K. Check with your doctor before taking any vitamin K supplement.

Uses

Vitamin K plays an important role in blood clotting. Therefore, doctors commonly use vitamin K supplements to reverse the effects of an overdose of blood-thinning medications. Vitamin K also helps to prevent clotting problems in newborns with insufficient vitamin K and can treat bleeding caused by some medications such as antibiotics, quinine, salicylates, sulfonamides or quinidine. Vitamin K supplements also can treat vitamin K deficiencies, help to prevent osteoporosis and relieve some types of itching.

Different Forms of Vitamin K

Clinically available forms of vitamin K include vitamin K1 or phytomenadione, which comes from plants; vitamin K2 or menaquinone, which comes from bacteria; and synthetic provitamins and vitamin K3 or menadione. According to the University of Maryland, you can find vitamin K1 and K3 as part of multivitamin complexes or alone in 5 milligram tablets. Food sources of vitamin K include cheese, egg yolk, butter, liver, spinach, green leafy vegetables, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, mustard greens, green peas, kale and carrots.

Vitamin K in Anticoagulation Therapy

Warfarin is a drug used to prevent excessive clotting of the blood that can lead to thrombosis, strokes and heart attacks. When you take too much warfarin, the drug can cause excessive bleeding that can put be life-threatening. Doctors use an index known as INR to measure the amount of warfarin administered. In cases where you have an elevated INR, doctors often prescribe vitamin K to help prevent hemorrhage. A study published in the December 2003 “Watch General Medicine” showed that intravenous vitamin K reversed the excessive anticoagulation more rapidly than the oral administration of vitamin K.

Oral versus Intravenous Administration

There are no significant differences between the oral and the intravenous administration of vitamin K. However, the intravenous route exerts its effects more rapidly than the oral route, especially as an antidote to excessive anticoagulation with warfarin. On the other hand, medical professionals more commonly recommend the oral vitamin K supplement to treat deficiencies. You should always speak with a medical professional prior to taking any vitamin K supplement.