Avaliação do risco de sangramento pós-exodontia em pacientes candidatos ao transplante de fígado

Abstract

Liver transplantation is the gold standard treatment for patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The Brazilian Registry of Transplantation revealed that liver transplantation was the second solid organ most transplanted in 2010. With the purpose to eliminate foci of infection and reduce the risk of infection on the postransplant stage, these patients should undergo dental treatment to the removal of dental foci, with special care regarding the hemostasis impairment, mainly related to a reduced hepatic synthesis of procoagulants factors and thrombocytopenia. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the incidence of postoperative bleeding after dental extraction in candidates for liver transplantation. In this study, 23 patients were included with a mean age of 43.17 ± 14.62 years, with a higher prevalence of whites (82.6%) and men (60.9%). In 23 patients, 84 simple extractions were performed in 35 dental surgical procedures. Patients were divided in two groups to compare two local hemostatic measures after tooth extraction: in group 1, local pressure after sutures was applied with gauze soaked with tranexamic acid, and in group 2, the same procedure without the tranexamic acid was performed. In all subjects, absorbable hemostatic sponges and cross sutures were used as a standard hemostatic measure. The main preoperative blood tests found were: mean hematocrit of 34.54% (SD ± 5.84%, range 21.7% – 44.4%), platelets ranged from 31,000/mm3 to 160,000/mm3, mean international normalized ratio (INR) was 1.50 (SD ± 0.39; range 0.98 - 2.59). Postoperative bleeding occurred in only one procedure (2.9%) and local pressure with gauze was effective to achieve hemostasis. Thus, this paper demonstrates the possibility of performing tooth extractions in patients with liver cirrhosis, with INR ≤ 2.50 and platelets ≥ 30,000/mm3, without the need of blood transfusion, and in case of bleeding events, the use of local hemostatic measures can be satisfactory.