Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the rates of haemorrhagic and thrombotic complications in patients undergoing interventional tumour ablation with and without peri-interventional low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) thrombosis prophylaxis.
Methods: Patients presented with primary and secondary neoplastic lesions in the liver, lung, kidney, lymph nodes and other locations. A total of 781 tumour ablations (radiofrequency ablation, n = 112; interstitial brachytherapy, n = 669) were performed in 446 patients over 22 months; 260 were conducted under peri-interventional thrombosis prophylaxis with LMWH (H-group;) and 521 without this (NH-group, in 143 of these, LMWH was given post-interventionally).
Results: Sixty-three bleeding events occurred. There were significantly more bleedings in the H-group than in the NH-group (all interventions, 11.66 and 6.26 %, p = 0.0127; liver ablations, 12.73 and 7.1 %, p = 0.0416). The rate of bleeding events Grade ≥ III in all procedures was greater by a factor of >2.6 in the H-group than in the NH-group (4.64 and 1.73 %, p = 0.0243). In liver tumour ablations, the corresponding factor was about 3.3 (5.23 and 1.54 %, p = 0.028). In uni- and multivariate analyses including covariates, the only factor constantly and significantly associated with the rate of haemorrhage events was peri-interventional LMWH prophylaxis. Only one symptomatic lung embolism occurred in the entire cohort (NH-group). The 30- and 90-day mortalities were significantly greater in the H-group than in the NH-group.
Conclusions: Peri-interventional LMWH thrombosis prophylaxis should be considered with caution. The rate of clinically relevant thrombotic events was extremely low.
Keywords: Ablation; Bleeding events; Brachytherapy; Complications; Heparin; LMWH; RFA.