Objective: To determine how are managed patients with anticoagulation treatments who are operated by transuretral resection of the prostate (TURP), and to evaluate the morbidity associated to these treatments.
Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study on 226 patients operated consecutively in six french hospitals between January 2007 and August 2008 by TURP for symptomatic benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH).
Results: Eighty-three patients (37%) operated by TURP were under anticoagulation treatment before hospitalization. (23 cases under coumarin derivatives, 57 cases under platelet aggregation inhibitors, and three cases under low molecular weight heparin). Management of anticoagulation for the operative period was very heterogenic. Overall, patients under anticoagulation treatment had significantly longer hospitalization period (5.8 versus 4.9 days, p = 0.003) and were more frequently re-hospitalized for hematuria (14.5% versus 1.4%, p < 0.001). Considering early and late morbidity, no significant difference was observed between patients under coumarin derivatives and those under platelet aggregation inhibitors.
Conclusions: This study assessed the risk of anticoagulants in BPH surgery, and showed the necessity of establishing protocols and recommendations for the management of patients under anticoagulation treatment requiring BPH surgery.