Perioperative continuation of aspirin, oral anticoagulants or bridging with therapeutic low-molecular-weight heparin does not increase intraoperative blood loss and blood transfusion rate in cystectomy patients: an observational cohort study

OBJECTIVE To assess if uninterrupted anticoagulant agents' administration affects blood loss and blood transfusion during open radical cystectomy (RC) and urinary diversion. PATIENTS AND METHODS We conducted an observational single-centre cohort study of a consecutive series of 1430 RC patients, between 2000 and 2020. Blood loss was depicted according to body weight and duration of surgery (mL/kg/h), and blood transfusion. The group 'with anticoagulant agents' was considered if surgery was performed with uninterrupted low-dose aspirin (ASS), oral anticoagulants (OAC) with an international normalised ratio (INR) goal of 2-2.5 or bridging with therapeutic low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH). Outcomes were intraoperative blood loss, blood transfusion rate (separately analysed if administered within 24 h perioperatively or >24 h after surgery) and the 90-day major adverse cardiac events (MACE) rate. We used propensity score (PS)-matching analysis to adjust for imbalances between groups with or without anticoagulant agents. RESULTS The PS-matched median (interquartile range [IQR]) blood loss was 2.10 (1.50-2.94) mL/kg/h in patients with anticoagulant agents vs 2.11 (1.47-2.94) mL/kg/h without anticoagulant agents (Padj > 0.99). The PS-matched blood transfusion rates were 26.2% vs 35.1% (Padj = 0.875) within 24 h perioperatively and 57.0% vs 55.0% (Padj = 0.680) if administered >24 h postoperatively. A sub-analysis of the three different anticoagulant agents could not detect any significance between ASS, OAC, or LMWH. The PS-matched incidence of MACE was 9.1% in the group with anticoagulant agents and 8.1% in those without anticoagulant agents (Padj > 0.99). Limitations include selection bias and retrospective analysis from prospectively assessed data. CONCLUSIONS Perioperative continuation of ASS, uninterrupted OAC with low INR goal or bridging with LMWH had no impact on blood loss and transfusion rate in RC patients. Therefore, there might be no compulsory need for discontinuation of anticoagulant agents.