Postoperative Venous Thromboembolism in Extramedullary Spinal Tumors

Risk factors for postoperative thrombosis-related complications in patients undergoing malignant brain tumor resection: a retrospective cohort study

Introduction

Patients with malignant brain tumors frequently exhibit hypercoagulation and are at a high risk of postoperative thrombosis-related complications. However, the risk factors for postoperative thrombosis-related complications remain unclear.

Methods

In this retrospective, observational study, we consecutively enrolled elective patients undergoing resection of malignant brain tumors from 26 November 2018 to 30 September 2021. The primary objective of the study was to identify risk factors for a composite of three major adverse events including postoperative lower limb deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and cerebral ischemia.

Results

A total of 456 patients were enrolled in this study, where 112 (24.6%) patients had postoperative thrombosis-related complications, 84 (18.4%) with lower limb deep venous thrombosis, 0 (0.0%) with pulmonary embolism, and 42 (9.2%) with cerebral ischemia. In a multivariate model, age more than 60 years (OR: 3.98, 95% CI: 2.30-6.88, P < 0.001), preoperative abnormal APTT (OR: 2.81, 95% CI: 1.06-7.42, P = 0.037), operation duration longer than 5 h (OR: 2.36, 95% CI: 1.34-4.16, P = 0.003), and admission to ICU (OR: 2.49, 95% CI: 1.21-5.12, P = 0.013) were independent risk factors of the postoperative deep vein thrombosis. Intraoperative plasma transfusion (OR: 6.85, 95% CI: 2.73-17.18, P < 0.001) was associated with significantly increased odds of deep vein thrombosis.

Conclusion

Patients with craniocerebral malignant tumors have a high incidence of postoperative thrombosis-related complications. There is an increase in the odds of postoperative lower limb deep venous thrombosis in patients; over 60 years old, with preoperative abnormal APTT, undergoing surgeries longer than 5-h, admission to ICU, or receiving intraoperative plasma infusion. Fresh frozen plasma infusion should be used more cautiously, especially in patients with a high risk of thrombosis.

Complication Avoidance in Surgical Management of Vertebral Column Tumors

The surgical management of spinal tumors has grown increasingly complex as treatment algorithms for both primary bone tumors of the spine and metastatic spinal disease have evolved in response to novel surgical techniques, rising complication rates, and additional data concerning adjunct therapies. In this review, we discuss actionable interventions for improved patient safety in the operative care for spinal tumors. Strategies for complication avoidance in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative settings are discussed for approach-related morbidities, intraoperative hemorrhage, wound healing complications, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, thromboembolism, and failure of instrumentation and fusion. These strategies center on themes such as pre-operative imaging review and medical optimization, surgical dissection informed by meticulous attention to anatomic boundaries, and fastidious wound closure followed by thorough post-operative care.

Influence of tranexamic acid use on venous thromboembolism risk in patients undergoing surgery for spine tumors

OBJECTIVE

Patients with spine tumors are at increased risk for both hemorrhage and venous thromboembolism (VTE). Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been advanced as a potential intervention to reduce intraoperative blood loss in this surgical population, but many fear it is associated with increased VTE risk due to the hypercoagulability noted in malignancy. In this study, the authors aimed to 1) develop a clinical calculator for postoperative VTE risk in the population with spine tumors, and 2) investigate the association of intraoperative TXA use and postoperative VTE.

METHODS

A retrospective data set from a comprehensive cancer center was reviewed for adult patients treated for vertebral column tumors. Data were collected on surgery performed, patient demographics and medical comorbidities, VTE prophylaxis measures, and TXA use. TXA use was classified as high-dose (≥ 20 mg/kg) or low-dose (< 20 mg/kg). The primary study outcome was VTE occurrence prior to discharge. Secondary outcomes were deep venous thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify independent risk factors for VTE and the resultant model was deployed as a web-based calculator.

RESULTS

Three hundred fifty patients were included. The mean patient age was 57 years, 53% of patients were male, and 67% of surgeries were performed for spinal metastases. TXA use was not associated with increased VTE (14.3% vs 10.1%, p = 0.37). After multivariable analysis, VTE was independently predicted by lower serum albumin (odds ratio [OR] 0.42 per g/dl, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.23-0.79, p = 0.007), larger mean corpuscular volume (OR 0.91 per fl, 95% CI 0.84-0.99, p = 0.035), and history of prior VTE (OR 2.60, 95% CI 1.53-4.40, p < 0.001). Longer surgery duration approached significance and was included in the final model. Although TXA was not independently associated with the primary outcome of VTE, high-dose TXA use was associated with increased odds of both DVT and PE. The VTE model showed a fair fit of the data with an area under the curve of 0.77.

CONCLUSIONS

In the present cohort of patients treated for vertebral column tumors, TXA was not associated with increased VTE risk, although high-dose TXA (≥ 20 mg/kg) was associated with increased odds of DVT or PE. Additionally, the web-based clinical calculator of VTE risk presented here may prove useful in counseling patients preoperatively about their individualized VTE risk.

Nomogram for Predicting the Postoperative Venous Thromboembolism in Spinal Metastasis Tumor: A Multicenter Retrospective Study

Introduction

Venous thromboembolism can be divided into deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. These diseases are a major factor affecting the clinical prognosis of patients and can lead to the death of these patients. Unfortunately, the literature on the risk factors of venous thromboembolism after surgery for spine metastatic bone lesions are rare, and no predictive model has been established.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed 411 cancer patients who underwent metastatic spinal tumor surgery at our institution between 2009 and 2019. The outcome variable of the current study is venous thromboembolism that occurred within 90 days of surgery. In order to identify the risk factors for venous thromboembolism, a univariate logistic regression analysis was performed first, and then variables significant at the P value less than 0.2 were included in a multivariate logistic regression analysis. Finally, a nomogram model was established using the independent risk factors.

Results

In the multivariate logistic regression model, four independent risk factors for venous thromboembolism were further screened out, including preoperative Frankel score (OR=2.68, 95% CI 1.78-4.04, P=0.001), blood transfusion (OR=3.11, 95% CI 1.61-6.02, P=0.041), Charlson comorbidity index (OR=2.01, 95% CI 1.27-3.17, P=0.013; OR=2.29, 95% CI 1.25-4.20, P=0.017), and operative time (OR=1.36, 95% CI 1.14-1.63, P=0.001). On the basis of the four independent influencing factors screened out by multivariate logistic regression model, a nomogram prediction model was established. Both training sample and validation sample showed that the predicted probability of the nomogram had a strong correlation with the actual situation.

Conclusion

The prediction model for postoperative VTE developed by our team provides clinicians with a simple method that can be used to calculate the VTE risk of patients at the bedside, and can help clinicians make evidence-based judgments on when to use intervention measures. In clinical practice, the simplicity of this predictive model has great practical value.

Predicting the occurrence of venous thromboembolism: construction and verification of risk warning model

Background

The onset of venous thromboembolism is insidious and the prognosis is poor. In this study, we aimed to construct a VTE risk warning model and testified its clinical application value.

Methods

Preliminary construction of the VTE risk warning model was carried out according to the independent risk warning indicators of VTE screened by Logistic regression analysis. The truncated value of screening VTE was obtained and the model was evaluated. ROC curve analysis was used to compare the test of Caprini risk assessment scale and VTE risk warning model. The cut-off value of the VTE risk warning model was used to evaluate the test effectiveness of the model for VTE patients with validation data set.

Results

The VTE risk warning model is p = e^x / (1+ e^x), x = − 4.840 + 2.557 • X₁₀₍₁₎ + 1.432 • X₁₄₍₁₎ + 2.977 • X₁₅₍₁₎ + 3.445 • X₁₈₍₁₎ + 1.086 • X₂₅₍₁₎ + 0.249 • X₃₄ + 0.282 • X₄₁. ROC curve results show that: AUC (95%CI), cutoff value, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, Youden index, Caprini risk assessment scale is 0.596 (0.552, 0.638), 5, 26.07, 96.50, 61.3%, 0.226, VTE risk warning model is 0.960 (0.940, 0.976), 0.438, 92.61, 91.83, 92.2%, 0.844, respectively, with statistically significant differences (Z = 14.521, P < 0.0001). The accuracy and Youden index of VTE screening using VTE risk warning model were 81.8 and 62.5%, respectively.

Conclusions

VTE risk warning model had high accuracy in predicting VTE occurrence in hospitalized patients. Its test performance was better than Caprini risk assessment scale. It also had high test performance in external population.