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Abstract
To assess the risk for intraoperative and postoperative bleeding associated with antiplatelet
and/or anticoagulant treatment in patients having uneventful phacoemulsification.
Kokura Memorial Hospital, Kitakyusyu, Japan.
In a nonrandomized case series, consecutive patients had phacoemulsification and intraocular
lens implantation under sub-Tenon anesthesia. All patients were on warfarin, acetylsalicylic
acid (aspirin) therapy, or both. Patients discontinued therapy 1 week before surgery
(discontinuation group) or continued the therapeutic regimen until the time of surgery
(maintenance group).
The discontinuation group comprised 182 patients and the maintenance group, 173 patients.
There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in the mean prothrombin time-international
normalized ratio in patients taking warfarin (P = .6). Although there was no significant
intraoperative bleeding in any case, 47 eyes (16.5%) in the maintenance group and
31 eyes (10.8%) in the discontinuation group had a subconjunctival hemorrhage postoperatively
(P = .0309). Minor postoperative ocular bleeding occurred in 11 eyes (4.0%) in the
maintenance group and 7 eyes (2.5%) in the discontinuation group (P = .4). During
the 1-month postoperative period, the mean change in corrected distance visual acuity
was -0.462 logMAR +/- 0.331 (SD) in the maintenance group and -0.434 +/- 0.318 logMAR
in the discontinuation group (P = .3).
Patients taking warfarin, aspirin, or both up to the time of phacoemulsification had
a significantly higher incidence of subconjunctival hemorrhage than those who discontinued
therapy. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in the incidence
of intraoperative and postoperative complications or in visual improvement.
The author has no financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.
Copyright 2010 ASCRS and ESCRS. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.