Background/aim: The safety of gastrectomy for patients receiving antithrombotic agents remains unclear. This retrospective cohort study sought to compare outcomes between patients who did and did not receive antithrombotic agents.
Patients and methods: This single-center retrospective cohort study included 548 patients who underwent gastrectomy for primary gastric adenocarcinoma from January 2011 to December 2019. The surgical outcomes were compared between two groups according to whether they received antithrombotic therapy (n=121) or not (n=427).
Results: Among the entire cohort, the patients in the antithrombotic therapy group were significantly older than those who did not receive this therapy and had significantly higher postoperative complication rates than those who did not (33.1% vs. 23.9%; p=0.046). However, after propensity score matching, no significant difference in the postoperative complication rate was observed between the two groups.
Conclusion: Despite having a high risk for postoperative complications, patients receiving antithrombotic therapy can safely undergo gastric resection.
Keywords: Antithrombotic treatment; gastrectomy; gastric cancer.
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