The Safety and Effectiveness of Tranexamic Acid in Lumbar Interbody Fusion Surgery: An Updated Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Objective: Several previous meta-analyses have been published, followed by additional randomized clinical trials investigating the effects of tranexamic acid (TXA) in patients undergoing posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) surgery. As a result, the purpose of this research is to present an updated quantitative analysis of the existing literature and to further explicate its effectiveness.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the application of TXA and placebo in patients undergoing PLIF surgery from their establishment to December 31, 2021. Data on clinical outcomes, perioperative outcomes, and complications were collected. The summary statistics for continuous and dichotomous variables were derived as weighted mean difference (WMD) and relative risk (RR), respectively.

Results: A total of 12 studies enrolling 1088 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The combined results revealed that TXA can decrease intraoperative blood loss (WMD: -84.83, P < 0.0001), total blood loss (WMD: -189.93, P < 0.00001), hidden blood loss (WMD: -134.69, P = 0.002), postoperative drainage (WMD: -100.71, P < 0.00001), postoperative hemoglobin loss (WMD: 6.21, P < 0.00001), operative time (WMD: -3.80, P = 0.007), hospital stay (WMD: -1.86, P = 0.001), and transfusion rates (RR: 0.41, P < 0.00001) in PLIF without increasing the risk of thromboembolic events (RR: 0.80, P = 0.43).

Conclusions: TXA can considerably decrease surgical blood loss, postoperative drainage, reduce operative times, hospital stays, and transfusion rates. Furthermore, the TXA group had lower postoperative hemoglobin drop values than the placebo group.

Keywords: Blood loss; Lumbar interbody fusion; Meta-analysis; Randomized controlled trial; Tranexamic acid.