Background: Antiplatelets and anticoagulants are widely adopted in everyday clinical practice. Postoperative major bleeding is rare but may cause fatal complications in patients who underwent gastric cancer surgery. We investigated association of anti...
Background: Antiplatelets and anticoagulants are widely adopted in everyday clinical practice. Postoperative major bleeding is rare but may cause fatal complications in patients who underwent gastric cancer surgery. We investigated association of antiplatelets and anticoagulants with postoperative major bleeding risk.
Methods: The study populations consisted of patients over 18 years of age who were admitted to Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH) between January 2012 and December 2017 for gastric cancer surgery. The primary outcome was postoperative major bleeding which was defined as intraluminal bleeding or intraabdominal bleeding with fall in hemoglobin level of at least 2 g/dL (1.24 mmol/L), or transfusion, of at least two units of red blood cells (RBCs), with temporal association within 24 h to the bleeding. The secondary outcomes were intraoperative, postoperative transfusion and early complication rate.
Results: Postoperative major bleeding were 11 (2.0%) cases in antiplatelets/anticoagulants group and 43 (1.3%) in control group (P = 0.234). Intraoperative and postoperative transfusion rate were significantly higher in antiplatelets/anticoagulants group than control group [168 (4.9%) vs. 59 (10.5%); P < 0.001 and 174 (5.1%) vs. 47 (8.3%); P = 0.003]. Early complication developed in 73 (13%) patients in antiplatelets/anticoagulants group and 364 (10.7 %) patients in control group (P = 0.109). In multivariable analysis, male [odds ratio (OR) : 2.623, 95% confidence interval (CI) : 1.267-5.429 ; P = 0.009)] and advanced stage (III, IV) [OR : 2.869, 95% CI : 1.398-5.889 ; P = 0.004)] were independent significant risk factors for postoperative major bleeding
Conclusions: Preoperative antiplatelets or anticoagulants administration didn’t increase the risk of postoperative major bleeding after gastric cancer surgery significantly. Male and advanced stage (III, IV) were the independent risk factors for postoperative major bleeding risk regardless of antiplatelets or anticoagulants.