Preoperative antiplatelet therapy may be a risk factor for postoperative ischemic complications in intracranial...

Spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) patients are still at risk of postoperative ischemic complications (PICs) after surgery. In addition, the proportion of patients receiving antiplatelet therapy (APT) in ICH patients increased significantly with age. This study aims to evaluate the impact of preoperative antiplatelet therapy on PICs in ICH patients.

This is a cohort study that retrospectively analyzed the data of ICH patients who underwent surgical treatment. PICs rate was compared between patients with preoperative ATP and those without preoperative ATP. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to evaluate the impact of preoperative APT on PICs. In addition, Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis and the impact of PICs on patients' postoperative outcomes was evaluated.

A total of 216 patients were included in this study. There were 47 patients (21.76%) with preoperative APT; 169 patients (78.24%) without preoperative APT. The incidence of PICs in the APT group was significantly higher when compared with that in the nAPT group (36.17% vs. 20.71%, p = 0.028＜0.05). Furthermore, significant differences were both observed in multivariate analysis (p = 0.035＜0.05) and survival analysis (log rank χ2 = 5.415, p = 0.020＜0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the outcomes of patients suffering from PICs and that of patients not suffering from PICs (p = 0.377 > 0.05).

In conclusion, preoperative APT may be a risk factor for PICs in ICH patients undergoing surgical treatment significantly.