Incidence of bleeding following invasive procedures in patients with thrombocytopenia and advanced liver disease.
OBJECTIVE
Patients with advanced liver disease often undergo invasive procedures, so the combination of thrombocytopenia, coagulopathy, and bleeding should be carefully assessed. We evaluated the prevalence of thrombocytopenia in a series of patients with liver cirrhosis who were being evaluated for orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) and determined the number of invasive procedures and procedure-related incidences of bleeding in patients with thrombocytopenia.


METHODS
We studied 121 consecutive patients who were being evaluated for OLT. Thrombocytopenia was defined as a platelet count <150,000/μL and severe thrombocytopenia as a platelet count <75,000/μL. The presence of significant coagulopathy was defined as an international normalized ratio >1.5. Invasive procedures and incidences of procedure-related bleeding were recorded for each patient.


RESULTS
The prevalence of thrombocytopenia and severe thrombocytopenia were 84% and 51%, respectively. Among the 102 thrombocytopenic patients, 50 (49%) underwent an invasive procedure (32 with severe thrombocytopenia; 64%). Bleeding occurred in 10 of the patients who underwent an invasive procedure (20%). Among the 50 patients who underwent invasive procedure, 32 had severe thrombocytopenia and 18 had moderate thrombocytopenia. Bleeding occurred in 10 of the 32 patients (31%) with severe thrombocytopenia and in none of those with moderate thrombocytopenia. There was no difference in prevalence of significant coagulopathy between patients with severe thrombocytopenia who underwent invasive procedure and bled (3/10; 30%) and those who did not bleed (10/22; 45%).


CONCLUSIONS
Thrombocytopenia has a high prevalence among patients with advanced liver disease. Bleeding related to invasive procedures occurs most frequently in patients with severe thrombocytopenia, whereas significant coagulopathy does not seem to be associated with bleeding.
Giannini
Edoardo G
EG
Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy. egiannini@unige.it
Greco
Alfredo
A
Marenco
Simona
S
Andorno
Enzo
E
Valente
Umberto
U
Savarino
Vincenzo
V
D001706:Biopsy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001778:Blood Coagulation Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010976:Platelet Count; D015995:Prevalence; D013921:Thrombocytopenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology