Red Blood Cell Transfusions and Risk of Postoperative Venous Thromboembolism.

INTRODUCTION: Postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major risk for orthopaedic surgery and associated with notable morbidity and mortality. Knowing a patient's risk for VTE may help guide the choice of perioperative VTE prophylaxis. Recently, red blood cells (RBCs) have been implicated for their role in pathologic thrombosis. Therefore, we examine the association between perioperative RBC transfusion and postoperative VTE after orthopaedic surgery. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was done by conducting a secondary analysis of data obtained from the 2016 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. Our population consisted of 234,608 adults who underwent orthopaedic surgery. The exposure was whether patients received a perioperative RBC transfusion. The primary outcome was postoperative VTE within 30 days of surgery that warranted therapeutic intervention, which was subsequently split into symptomatic deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated using a multivariate logistic regression model. RESULTS: At baseline, 1,952 patients (0.83%) had postoperative VTE (DVT in 1,299 [0.55%], PE in 801 [0.34%], and both DVT and PE in 148 [0.06%]). Seven hundred ninety-five patients (0.3%) received preoperative RBC transfusions only, 11,587 patients (4.9%) received postoperative RBC transfusions only, and 848 patients (0.4%) received both preoperative and postoperative RBC transfusions. Postoperative RBC transfusion was associated with higher odds of VTE (adjusted OR [aOR], 1.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19-1.81), DVT (aOR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.09-1.79), PE (aOR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.14-2.22), and 30-day mortality (aOR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.01-1.45) independent of various presumed risk factors. When creating subgroups within orthopaedics by Current Procedural Terminology codes, postoperative transfusions in spine (aOR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.13-3.67) and trauma (aOR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.06-1.86) were associated with higher odds of postoperative VTE. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that postoperative RBC transfusion may be associated with an increased risk of postoperative VTE, both symptomatic DVT and life-threatening PE, independent of confounders. Additional prospective validation in cohort studies is necessary to confirm these findings. In addition, careful perioperative planning for patients deemed to be at high risk of requiring blood transfusion may reduce these postoperative complications in orthopaedic patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

Chemotherapy-induced changes in tumor consistency can allow gross total resection of previously unresectable brainstem pilocytic astrocytoma.

BACKGROUND: Low-grade gliomas (LGG) are described by the World Health Organization as Grades I and II. Among LGGs, the most common primary brain tumor is pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) and carries an excellent prognosis when treated with complete surgical resection. Cases, in which this is not possible, are associated with less favorable outcomes and worse progression-free survival. CASE DESCRIPTION: This report describes a case of a 22-year-old male, who presented with progression of a primary brainstem tumor previously treated with stereotactic radiosurgery and chemotherapy. Patient underwent surgical exploration and was diagnosed with juvenile PA, but debulking was limited by the very dense and fibrous tumor. Complete surgical resection was not possible at this time. Despite efforts to treat with chemotherapy, the patient presented a year later with clinical deterioration and severe neurologic deficits, prompting surgical re-exploration. During the second operation, the tumor was found to have undergone very significant softening in consistency, allowing for gross total resection (GTR). CONCLUSION: Aggressive treatment of brainstem LGG should be pursued whenever possible, given its generally favorable prognosis. Repeat microsurgical resection, even with a different approach, might be reasonable and safe. Finally, chemotherapy may be associated with changes in the tumor consistency that can render previously unresectable lesions amenable to successful aggressive resection.

Endovascular Treatment of Giant Intracranial Aneurysms.

Objective Giant intracranial aneurysms (GIAs) are associated with a high risk of rupture and have a high mortality rate when they rupture (65-100%). The traditional microsurgical approach to secure these lesions is challenging, and as such endovascular embolization has been increasingly selected as a treatment option. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients with ruptured and unruptured GIAs at three medical centers from October 2008 to April 2016. Clinical follow-up and digital subtraction angiography were conducted at six months post-treatment. Chi-square analysis was used to determine differences in outcomes between anterior and posterior circulation aneurysms and if a pipeline embolization device (PED) provided favorable outcomes in unruptured GIAs. Results A total of 45 consecutive patients (mean/median age = 57/59; range: 16-82 years) were included. The mean/median aneurysm size was 29.9/28.3 mm (range: 25-50 mm). Eight (18%) patients presented with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and 37 (82%) with unruptured GIAs. Twenty-eight (62%) were treated with a PED: 11 (24.4%) with one PED, 1 (2.2%) with PED + coils, 11 (24.4%) with more than one PED, and 5 (13.5%) with multiple PED + coils. The overall mortality rate was 3/45 (6.7%). No deaths were procedure-related. Five (11.1%) patients experienced ischemic stroke but only 2 had a 90-day modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of ≥3. Of 33 patients available for six-month angiography, Raymond scale (RS) scores were 1, 2, and 3 for 23/45 (70%), 7/45 (20.9%), and 3/45 (9.1%), respectively. Chi-square test demonstrated that overall, anterior circulation GIAs had better clinical (mRS score) and radiographic (RS score) outcomes than posterior GIAs. PED alone provided similar clinical mRS outcomes but had a higher rate of complete occlusion at six months compared with PED + coils and coils alone in unruptured GIAs (p < 0.05). Conclusions Endovascular embolization using PED or PED + coils appears to be a moderately safe and effective treatment option for patients with GIAs.