The role of extended coagulation screening in adult cranial neurosurgery

Postoperative hemorrhage after adult cranial neurosurgery is a serious complication with substantial morbidity and mortality.

We investigated if an extended preoperative screening and an early treatment of previously undetected coagulopathies may decrease the risk of postoperative hemorrhage.

A prospective study cohort of patients undergoing elective cranial surgery and receiving the extended coagulatory work-up were compared to a propensity matched historical control cohort. The extended work-up included a standardized questionnaire on the patient's bleeding history as well as coagulatory tests of Factor XIII, von-Willebrand-Factor and PFA-100®. Deficiencies were substituted perioperatively. The primary outcome was determined as the surgical revision rate due to postoperative hemorrhage.

The study cohort and the control cohort included 197 cases each, without any significant difference in the preoperative intake of anticoagulant medication (p ​= ​.546). Most common interventions were resections of malignant tumors (41%), benign tumors (27%) and neurovascular surgeries (9%) in both cohorts. Imaging revealed postoperative hemorrhage in 7 cases (3.6%) in the study cohort and 18 cases (9.1%) in the control cohort (p ​= ​.023). Of these, revision surgeries were significantly more common in the control cohort with 14 cases (9.1%) compared to 5 cases (2.5%) in the study cohort (p ​= ​.034). Differences in mean intraoperative blood loss were not significant with 528 ​ml in the study cohort and 486 ​ml in the control cohort (p ​= ​.376).

Preoperative extended coagulatory screening may allow for revealing previously undiagnosed coagulopathies with subsequent preoperative substitution and thereby reduction of risk for postoperative hemorrhage in adult cranial neurosurgery.