1.
Preoperative thromboelastography in the prediction of post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage by coblation tonsillectomy: a post-hoc analysis
Liu, Q., Zhang, Y., Liu, Y.
Annals of Saudi Medicine. 2022;42(6):377-384
Abstract
BACKGROUND Post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage (PTH) affects around 4% of patients after tonsillectomy. We hypothesized that preoperative thromboelastography (TEG) might identify patients at higher risk of PTH. OBJECTIVE Investigate whether evaluation of coagulation function by preoperative TEG might help to predict PTH after tonsillectomy by coblation tonsillectomy (TE). DESIGN Post-hoc analysis of randomized controlled study. SETTING Otolaryngology Department between January 2017 and August 2019. PATIENTS AND METHODS This post-hoc analysis included adults who underwent coblation TE for benign tonsillar disorders. Routine blood tests and TEG were performed preoperatively. The TEG parameters evaluated included coagulation reaction time (R) and maximum thrombus amplitude (MA). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The main outcome was PTH during the 4-week postoperative period. SAMPLE SIZE AND CHARACTERISTICS 284 RESULTS The 19 patients (6.7%) that experienced PTH had a higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus, lower use of intraoperative suturing, fewer patients with grade I and II tonsillar enlargement, a higher white blood cell count, lower platelet count, lower fibrinogen level, lower R value, and a lower MA value than patients without PTH (all P<.05). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that diabetes mellitus (P<.053), fibrinogen level ≤2.735 g/L (P<.027), R≤6.55 min (P<.011) and MA≤59.15 mm (P<.012) were independently associated with PTH. A regression model incorporating these four factors predicted PTH with a sensitivity of 73.7% and specificity of 83.8%. CONCLUSION Preoperative evaluation of diabetes mellitus history, fibrinogen level, and TEG parameters might help to identify patients at higher risk of PTH after coblation TE. LIMITATIONS Single-center study with a small sample size; possibly underpowered statistically. TEG measurements might not accurately reflect coagulation function, and a validation cohort was unavailable. CONFLICT OF INTEREST None. CHINESE CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRY NUMBER OF STUDY USED IN THIS ANALYSIS ChiCTR2000032171. http://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojen.aspx?proj=52553.
2.
Efficacy and toxicities of low-temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation for the treatment of laryngomalacia in neonates and infants: a prospective randomized controlled trial
Xu H, Chen F, Zheng Y, Li X
Annals of translational medicine. 2020;8(21):1366
Abstract
BACKGROUND Laryngomalacia is the most common cause of stridor in neonates and infants, and supraglottoplasty is the mainstay of surgical treatment. Although low-temperature plasma radiofrequency ablation (LTP-RFA) using coblation technology has been used for treating laryngomalacia, it is still lack of high-quality clinical evidence. Therefore, we conduct this prospective randomized study to clearly define the role of LTP-RFA for the treatment of laryngomalacia in neonates and infants. METHODS Between Jan 2017 and Dec 2019, a total of 89 children with laryngomalacia were included for analysis. All patients were initially stratified according to the severity of laryngomalacia. Patients with severe laryngomalacia were randomly assigned to receive LTP-RFA or traditionally surgical supraglottoplasty, while patients with moderate laryngomalacia were assigned to LTP-RFA or observation. The primary end point was the efficacy and toxicities of LTP-RFA by assessing the changes of clinical score and visual analogue scale (VAS) symptom score. The total score was the combination of clinical score with VAS score. RESULTS Of the 89 children, 40 children presented with severe laryngomalacia, and the remaining 49 children were diagnosed as moderate laryngomalacia. The median age was 68 days (range, 19 to 337 days). For children with severe laryngomalacia, our results showed that LTP-RFA treatment significantly reduced the operative time (5.55±1.66 vs. 18.7±5.31 min, P<0.001), length of hospital stay (6.71±1.15 vs. 7.95±1.55 days, P=0.008) and the amount of intraoperative hemorrhage (1.71±1.79 vs. 4.90±1.82, P<0.001) when compared to traditionally surgical supraglottoplasty, while the treatment efficacy was comparable between LTP-RFA and traditionally surgical supraglottoplasty in terms of changed total score (P=0.322), changed clinical score (P=0.135) and changed VAS symptom score (P=0.559). Additionally, for children with moderate laryngomalacia, LTP-RFA treatment significantly improved the symptom evaluated by total score (P<0.001), clinical score (P<0.001) and VAS symptom score (P<0.001) in comparison with the observation group. Post-operative pneumonia was observed in 10 patients. No surgical related death was reported. CONCLUSIONS The present study indicated that LTP-RFA was an effective treatment option for both severe and moderate laryngomalacia in neonates and infants with a low intraoperative complication. Long-term outcomes of LTP-RFA for laryngomalacia would be reported in further studies.