PMID: 26350661Sep 10, 2015Paper

Preprocedural Coagulation Studies in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Intervention for Appendiceal Abscesses

The American Surgeon
Sandra M FarachNicole M Chandler

Abstract

The literature reports poor correlation between coagulation screening and prediction of bleeding risk in children. Our aim is to determine whether there is a role for coagulation studies in children undergoing percutaneous intervention for appendiceal abscesses. A retrospective review of 1805 patients presenting with a diagnosis of appendicitis from September 2008 to September 2013 was performed. Patients presenting with appendiceal abscess who underwent percutaneous intervention were selected for further review (n = 131). A total of 76 patients (58%) had normal coagulation studies, whereas 55 (42%) had elevated values. An international normalized ratio ≥ 1.3 was found in 26 patients. Patients with normal coagulation values had an incidence of bleeding of 1.3 per cent. In the abnormal coagulation group, 8 patients received fresh frozen plasma before intervention, whereas 47 did not. There was one hematoma noted in each group with an incidence of bleeding of 3.6 per cent. The overall incidence of hematoma was 2.3 per cent with no significant difference in bleeding risk between the normal and abnormal coagulation groups. In conclusion, although many patients are found to have elevated coagulation studies, most do not have bleedin...Continue Reading

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