North Pacific Surgical Association
Malignancy does not dictate the hypercoagulable state following liver resection

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2014.12.022Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

A hypercoagulable state following intra-abdominal malignant resections has been reported. Whether this is because of the operation or the malignancy, a known cause of hypercoagulability, remains unclear. We determined if malignancy status affected the coagulation profile following liver resection by assessing perioperative thromboelastogram (TEG) values.

Methods

Retrospective review of prospectively collected TEG values in patients who received a liver resection was conducted. Values among patients with benign or malignant disease were compared.

Results

Fourteen and 63 patients were resected for benign and malignant disease, respectively. No significant differences in TEG values existed between the groups. Combining the groups, patients developed a relative hypercoagulable state postoperatively with decreased R-times (P < .05), although median values remained within the normal range.

Conclusion

Following liver resection, no differences in TEG values existed between patients with benign and malignant disease; the relative hypercoagulable state is more likely driven by postoperative coagulopathy rather than the malignancy status of the patient.

Section snippets

Methods

This study was a retrospective review of prospectively collected data for a noninterventional trial that was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Oregon Health & Science University. Methods for data collection of demographics, laboratory analysis, and perioperative management were conducted in an identical fashion as described in great detail in our previously published work.12, 13

The analysis comprised dividing patients into groups with benign or malignant disease. Later, the

Results

Between November 2010 and January 2013, 101 patients were enrolled in the study. Twenty-four patients were excluded because of nonanatomic wedge resections being conducted (19 patients), or unresectable disease (eg, carcinomatosis) being discovered during the operation (5 patients). The mean age was 57 years (standard deviation ±14 years). Men comprised 52% of the cohort.

A list of confirmed pathologic diagnoses for all the liver resections is depicted in Table 1. The majority of patients, 63/77

Comments

These data show that patients who received a liver resection have TEG values within the normal range suggesting that they are neither hypercoagulable nor hypocoagulable following resection. However, a relative hypercoagulable state occurs as the R-time decreased postoperatively compared with the baseline preoperative value. This effect persists to at least POD5, the last collection time point in the study. Furthermore, relative hypercoagulability is most likely because of the operation, rather

References (13)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (11)

  • Post-hepatectomy liver failure prediction and prevention: Development of a nomogram containing postoperative anticoagulants as a risk factor

    2022, Annals of Hepatology
    Citation Excerpt :

    We found many of the PHLF patients had typical CT images of PHLF, including portal vein thrombosis and obstruction, as well as large infarcts in the liver (Fig. 6). Studies have shown that postoperative hypercoagulability is caused by liver coagulation dysfunction [25]. We speculate that liver failure may be the process of liver disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) leading to liver infarction.

  • Utility of viscoelastic coagulation testing in liver surgery: a systematic review

    2021, HPB
    Citation Excerpt :

    Similar findings were observed in the study by Tanner et al. with TEG demonstrating a hypercoagulable profile in 64%, 33%, 39% and 36% of patients following hepatectomy on POD0, POD1, POD3 and POD5, respectively.18 Gordon et al.31 recorded two cases of Internal Jugular Vein Thrombosis (IJVC) in the setting of a slight hypercoagulable status as indicated by TEG, although these were most likely related to central venous catheter trauma on site. Of note, De Pietri et al.32 reported that two patients (out of 38) developed pulmonary embolism after not receiving thromboprophylaxis following liver surgery.

  • Effect of Liver Disease Etiology on ROTEM Profiles in Patients Undergoing Liver Transplantation

    2019, Transplantation Proceedings
    Citation Excerpt :

    Therefore, any explanations are conjectural and verification in further studies is recommended before this effect is accepted. Our results support previous studies that have found that patients with hepatocellular carcinoma demonstrate similar results on viscoelastic tests of coagulation to patients with non-biliary etiologies [24,25]. Our second hypothesis was that elevated baseline EXTEM A10 values may predict postoperative thrombotic complications.

  • Coagulation profile following liver resection: Does liver cirrhosis affect thromboelastography?

    2018, American Journal of Surgery
    Citation Excerpt :

    In our patient population, despite a statistically significant increase in prothrombin time/international normalized ratio, there was not a concordant hypocoagulable state in any of the different measurements in the thromboelastogram or the overall coagulation index. This is consistent with other groups that have shown similar findings.2,8,11 Utilizing the coagulation index we found that up to 64% of patients were in fact hypercoagulable at some point following liver resection and therefore are at increased risk for venous thromboembolism.

  • Thromboelastography demonstrates perioperative hypercoagulability in hepato-pancreato-biliary patients and supports routine administration of preoperative and early postoperative venous thromboembolism chemoprophylaxis

    2017, HPB
    Citation Excerpt :

    This could be due to low pancreatectomy sample size in both our cohorts (18 in theirs and 37 in ours). In one of the Portland group's studies, they evaluated 77 patients who had undergone liver resection and found that the median time to clot formation was higher in the immediate postoperative period and on postoperative days 1 and 5.29 The authors stated they administered VTE chemoprophylaxis to the “majority” of their patients early postoperatively, but had patients who received it much later (postoperative day 9–11) or not at all.

View all citing articles on Scopus

A part of this work was funded by the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon Health & Science University. This foundation provided financial support to obtain laboratory samples and analysis as well as administrative support for patient recruitment. The funding did not affect data analysis or manuscript preparation.

View full text