Background: Previous reports showed lack of consensus concerning interruption of anticoagulant/antithrombotic (AC/AT) treatment before skin cancer surgery.
Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk of postoperative bleeding in patients on AC/AT treatment undergoing skin cancer surgery without interruption of this treatment.
Method: This prospective cohort study included 271 consecutive patients divided into two groups - patients without and patients with AC/AT therapy. Inclusion criteria were skin cancer (basal-cell carcinoma, squamous-cell carcinoma, or malignant melanoma). Exclusion criteria were patients undergoing regional lymph node dissection or sentinel lymph node biopsy. Postoperative bleeding complications taken into consideration were those evaluated as moderate or severe and requiring some form of surgical or non-surgical hemostasis on an outpatient or inpatient basis.
Results: There were 47 patients in the AC/AT group and 224 in the control group (mean age = 76.6 and 68 years, respectively), with almost equal distribution of tumours in both groups. There were 34.1% of patients on AT, 55% on AC treatment, and 10.6% on mixed treatment (AC+AT or AT+AT). Postoperative bleeding complications did not show a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.063).
Conclusion: Skin cancer surgery can be safely performed without discontinuation of AC/AT treatment, since the risk of postoperative bleeding is statistically insignificant.
Keywords: anticoagulant; antiplatelet; postoperative bleeding; skin cancer.