What is Trasylol?

Trasylol, which is also known as aprotinin, is a drug used during open-heart by-pass surgery to reduce bleeding and clotting. Trasylol is manufactured by Bayer AG, a multi-billion dollar German pharmaceutical company. Trasylol is given only by injection and costs approximately $1,000.00 per injection. It was approved for limited use during heart surgery in 1993, but had not undergone extensive safety investigation until recently. Bayer has suspended sales of Trasylol because of serious questions raised by recent medical journal articles related to the safety of the drug.