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Intraoperative ketorolac and posttonsillectomy bleeding
J H Judkins1, T G Dray, R N Hubbell
1Department of Surgery, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA.
Objective:
To determine the occurrence of posttonsillectomy bleeding in patients who received intraoperative ketorolac tromethamine.
Design:
Retrospective analysis.
Setting:
Academic tertiary care center.
Patients:
Three hundred eleven patients who underwent tonsillectomy in an 18-month period.
Main Outcome Measure:
Occurrence of bleeding complications in patients who received ketorolac during tonsillectomy.
Results:
Fifty-eight of 311 patients who underwent tonsillectomy received intraoperative ketorolac with an overall postoperative bleeding rate of 17%. This high rate of bleeding complications compares with 4.4% in the remaining 253 patients who received traditional opioid analgesics.
Conclusions:
Until further controlled studies have been conducted, the use of ketorolac in patients undergoing tonsillectomy should be avoided because of the increased incidence of postoperative bleeding complications.