Abstract

Conventional laboratory investigations of haemostasis like prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time are not useful in predicting and managing intra-operative bleeding complications. In order to establish a possible “perioperative reference range” for thrombin generation prothrombin fragment F1+2 (F1+2) and fibrin degradation (D-dimer) markers, we measured F1+2 and D-dimer concentrations before surgery (but after induction of anaesthesia), 30 minutes into surgery, 10 minutes after the event expected to induce the maximal activation of the haemostatic systems, 90 minutes after surgery and on postoperative days 1 and 2 in 226 consecutive patients. Samples were collected from arterial lines. Twenty patients developed a clinically defined, intraoperative disorder of haemostasis, 206 did not. Patients with an intraoperative disorder of haemostasis had significantly higher preoperative F1+2 and D-dimer concentrations. Preoperative values for F1+2 and D-dimer concentrations above the 75th percentile of patients without an intraoperative disorder of haemostasis indicated a 2.70 to 2.88 fold risk of developing an intraoperative disorder of haemostasis (odds ratios were 3.04, 3.12 and 3.29 for D-dimer, ELISA, F1+2, and D-dimer latex tests, respectively with 95% confidence intervals from 1.20 to 8.46) with negative predictive values of 94%, but positive predictive values of only 16% to 26%. These data suggest that preoperative determination of molecular markers might be helpful in identifying a group of patients at high risk for intraoperative disorder of haemostasis by exclusion of low risk patients. Validation of such an approach requires a prospective trial.