Purpose: The necessity to cease anticoagulation before photoselective vaporization (PVP) surgery remains nonconsensual. We aimed at assessing the efficacy and safety of PVP among high-risk benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) patients on or off anticoagulation.
Methods: We systematically searched Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Library Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). 2299 patients from 11 studies were eventually included. Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was employed to assess the quality and risk of bias of each study. All statistical analyses were conducted with Review Manager v.5.3 software.
Results: Ten parameters (operation time, laser time, blood transfusion, urethral stricture, urinary tract infection, reoperation, dysuria, capsule perforation, catheterization time, and re-catheterization) from patients on or off anticoagulant therapy were collected. The patients without anticoagulants performed better at catheterization time [MD - 0.54, 95% CI (- 0.82, - 0.26), P = 0.96, I2 = 0] with a reduction of 0.54 day than those on anticoagulants. Significant statistical difference was not observed from other parameters. Subgroup analysis, grouped by the power output of PVP systems (80 W, 120 W and 180 W), consistently showed no statistical significant difference except at catheterization time in the 180-W PVP subgroup.
Conclusion: PVP, a safe and effective option for high-risk BPH patients, work comparably regardless of anticoagulant therapy, despite non-anticoagulant patients have shorter catheterization time. It is implied that the use of anticoagulants might be unnecessary to stop for high-risk BPH patients undergoing PVP for the sake of safety, which certainly requires further investigations to confirm.
Keywords: Anticoagulant; Benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH); Lower urinary tract symptom (LUTS); Photoselective vaporization (PVP).