Aspirin therapy appears safe before thyroid surgery

(HealthDay)—Continuing aspirin therapy before thyroid surgery does not appear to increase the risk of intraoperative bleeding, according to a study published online March 1 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

Blake S. Raggio, M.D., from the Tulane University Medical Center in New Orleans, and colleagues retrospectively analyzed data from a consecutive sample of 570 patients (aged 18 to 100 years) who underwent thyroid surgery by a single surgeon for benign and malignant disease from 2010 through 2015. Comparisons were made between patients receiving and not receiving preoperative aspirin therapy.

The researchers found that 18.6 percent of surgeries were performed in patients receiving aspirin (21.7 percent in men and 99.1 percent in patients >45 years). There were no statistically significant or clinically meaningful increases in intraoperative blood loss with aspirin therapy. Although the results were inconclusive, aspirin therapy was associated with a statistically significant increase (3.3 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.4 to 9) in total hematoma formation. However, aspirin therapy was not associated with a statistically significant increase in recurrent laryngeal nerve injury, though these results were also inconclusive (2.6 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, −1.1 to 8.6).

"Further research with a larger sample size and more outcome events are required to make definitive conclusions regarding the association between aspirin use and complications, including hematoma and recurrent laryngeal nerve injury," the authors write.

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