3.1. Patients and Follow-Up
hernia
The study occurred from September 2017 through March 2019. All study participants were followed up for at least 12 months; the mean duration of follow-up was 491 days. During the follow-up period, 20 patients were excluded from the study. Three declined to participate in the study, and 9 were excluded because of failure to obtain available INR results. A total of 25 patients were lost to follow-up; of these patients, 5 were excluded because they were followed up for less than one month after randomization, but the other 20 were included in the analysis. Another 11 patients interrupted their warfarin treatment for noncardiac operations, such as dental operations and hernia operations, but all of these patients resumed warfarin therapy afterwards. Overall, a total of 718 patients completed the study and were included in the analysis.The baseline characteristics of the patients are shown in 