Objective: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a life-threatening complication in neurosurgical patients. This study retrospectively analyzed the effectiveness and safety of a screening strategy for the detection and prevention of VTE in patients undergoing elective brain tumor surgery.
Patients: A total of 419 consecutive patients who underwent brain tumor surgery during 5 years were enrolled. At the midpoint of the study period, screening for VTE was introduced based on measurement of serum D-dimer level on the day after surgery and then once or twice every week. Anticoagulant therapy was started after the diagnosis of VTE. The two groups with (228 patients) and without (191 patients) screening were compared.
Results: Most of the demographic and clinical characteristics were relatively well balanced in the groups. VTE was diagnosed in 23 (5.5%) patients overall; the rate was higher in the screening group (7.0%) than in the non-screening group (3.7%). Although the rate of VTE-related adverse events was lower in the screening group (1.3% vs. 2.6%), the rate of hemorrhagic complications was higher (2.2% vs. 0.5%). Multivariate analysis indicated that malignant histology and preoperative paresis were independent risk factors for the diagnosis of VTE.
Conclusions: Many VTE patients may not exhibit signs or symptoms, so screening using surrogate markers for VTE (D-dimer) may be useful in the early detection of asymptomatic VTE. However, most distal, deep venous thrombosis in isolation is not life-threatening, so the added efficacy of anticoagulant agents at this stage has to be weighed against the risks of hemorrhagic complications, especially in the early postoperative period.