Abstract
Background
Venous thromboembolic events (VTE) are a morbidity and mortality concern for patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery. Although VTE prophylaxis is recommended in bariatric surgery, data with regard to monitoring and appropriate dosing of low-molecular-weight heparin are limited. Enoxaparin prophylactic doses ranging from 30 to 60 mg every 12 h have been used for this population. The authors hypothesized that higher prophylactic enoxaparin doses (60 mg) would yield more appropriate heparin antifactor Xa (anti-Xa) concentrations than the 40-mg dosage for bariatric surgery patients.
Methods
Patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery by two surgeons during a 5-month period at one institution received enoxaprin 40 or 60 mg every 12 h. Anti-Xa levels were obtained 4 h after the first and third doses. Therapeutic levels were defined as 0.18 to 0.44 U/ml. Paired and unpaired t-tests and chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis as appropriate.
Results
The first-dose mean anti-Xa concentration was 0.173 U/ml in the 40-mg group and 0.261 U/ml in the 60-mg group (p < 0.005), compared with the third-dose mean anti-Xa levels of 0.21 and 0.43 U/ml, respectively (p < 0.001). After the third dose of enoxaparin, the percentage of patients with anti-Xa concentrations who remained subtherapeutic showed a statistically significant difference: 44% in the 40-mg group versus 0% in the 60-mg group (p = 0.02). However, no supratherapeutic anti-Xa concentrations were observed in the 40-mg group, whereas 57% of the third-dose levels in the 60-mg group were supratheraputic. The highest anti-Xa level was 0.54 U/ml, but none of the patients with this level experienced bleeding events.
Conclusions
Enoxaparin 60-mg every 12 h was superior to a dosage of 40 mg every 12 h in achieving therapeutic anti-Xa concentrations and avoiding subtherapeutic anti-Xa levels. However, the 60-mg group had a number of supratherapeutic levels. Future studies evaluating the relationship of anti-Xa concentrations and outcomes with larger numbers of morbidly obese patients are needed.
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Presented at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) 2008 annual meeting at Philadelphia, PA.
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Simone, E.P., Madan, A.K., Tichansky, D.S. et al. Comparison of two low-molecular-weight heparin dosing regimens for patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery. Surg Endosc 22, 2392–2395 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-008-9997-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-008-9997-6