Heparin-Bridging Therapy and Risk of Bleeding After Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection for Gastric Neoplasms: a...

Peri-procedural heparin is recommended as bridging therapy for patients with high thromboembolic risk who need to withhold anticoagulant for endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for gastric neoplasms. However, little is known about the bleeding risk from heparin-bridging therapy itself.

MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched through August 2017 for studies that compared the risk of post-ESD bleeding in patients who received heparin-bridging therapy in lieu of anticoagulant for gastric neoplasms and those who discontinued anticoagulant without receiving heparin. Pooled risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a random-effect model, generic inverse variance method. The between-study heterogeneity was quantified using the Q statistic and I².

A total of four studies consisting of 350 patients were identified. A significantly increased risk of post-ESD bleeding among the bridged patients compared with the non-bridged patients was observed with the pooled RR of 2.99 (95% CI, 1.51 to 5.92). The statistical heterogeneity was insignificant with I² of 0%.

A significantly increased risk of post-ESD bleeding among patients who received heparin-bridging therapy in lieu of anticoagulant compared to patients who did not receive it was demonstrated in this study.