title: Initial experience with aspirin use during robotic radical prostatectomy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  New cardiology guidelines recommend antiplatelet therapy for some patients with cardiac stents. Aspirin use is relatively contraindicated during urologic surgery because of increased bleeding risk. We sought to review the outcomes of patients who continued aspirin during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between October 2007 and February 2010, 249 patients underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy by a single surgeon. After consultation with the patients' cardiologists, 6 patients had coronary artery stents and continued aspirin perioperatively (Group 1), and 7 patients had coronary artery stents but did not continue aspirin perioperatively (Group 2). The remaining 236 patients had no coronary artery stents and did not require continued aspirin (Group 3). We analyzed our patients' preoperative characteristics, including age, prostate-specific antigen volume, and D'Amico risk, as well as operative time, blood loss, hematocrit changes, transfusion requirements, length of hospital stay, and complications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found no differences in operative time, estimated blood loss, changes in hematocrit, or length of hospital stay. No patients with any type of cardiac stent required a postoperative blood transfusion or had complications requiring more than simple anti-emetics, analgesics, or electrolyte correction. Nine patients in Group 3 required interventions for significant complications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Larger studies need to be performed to validate these observations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery/Urology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92103-8897, USA.
authors.forename: Sepehr
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nowfar
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kopp
authors.forename: Kerrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Palazzi-Churas
authors.forename: Ithaar H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Derweesh
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Kane
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001241:Aspirin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D006400:Hematocrit; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010975:Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011468:Prostatectomy / Q000379:methods*; D012371:Robotics; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D010975:Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors; D001241:Aspirin