When managed by an experienced team, patients with inherited bleeding disorders undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopy are not at increased bleeding risk, according to researchers reporting the largest series of such patients to date.
The postendoscopy bleeding rate was less than 1% for the patients in this series, many of whom underwent high-risk procedures or had comorbid conditions putting them at risk of bleeding, the researchers reported.
The rate of colonoscopic postpolypectomy bleeding was less than 5%, which is comparable to the general population rate for such high-risk procedures, said investigator Marcel Tomaszewski, MD, of McGill University, Montreal, and colleagues.
Those results favor the use of the “interdisciplinary approach provided by a hemophilia treatment center, communication between services, and the use of periprocedure prophylaxis including tranexamic acid,” Dr. Tomaszewski and coinvestigators said in their report in Haemophilia.
The study cohort included 48 individuals undergoing a total of 104 endoscopies, which is believed to be the largest case series of digestive endoscopy procedures ever reported in patients with congenital bleeding disorders, according to the researchers.
Hemophilia A and von Willebrand disease were the most common bleeding disorders among these patients, accounting for 49 and 40 of the 104 procedures, respectively. The remaining 17 procedures were performed in patients with factor XI deficiency, hemophilia B, or factor VII deficiency.
Before their endoscopies, patients received bleeding prophylaxis, which consisted of combinations of recombinant factor for hemophilia patients, plasma-derived factor for von Willebrand disease patients, desmopressin, and tranexamic acid.
The rate of bleeding within 72 hours of the endoscopic procedure was 0.96% (95% confidence interval, 0.17%-5.25%). The bleeding rate for hemophilia A patients, regardless of severity, was 2.2%, while the rate for hemophilia B, von Willebrand disease, factor VII deficiency and factor XI deficiency was 0%.
The only endoscopic procedures associated with bleeding were colonoscopy, with a bleeding rate of 2%, and colonoscopy with polypectomy, which had a 4.8% bleeding rate, they added, noting that the reported rate of postpolypectomy bleeding in the general population ranges between 0.3% and 10%.
“The very low incidence of bleeding adverse events limited further planned inferential statistical analysis,” the researchers wrote.
These findings stand in contrast to some previous reports, including one series of 19 patients with hemophilia in which 31% experienced gastrointestinal bleeding after colonoscopy polypectomy, despite preprocedure prophylaxis.
“Our approach, particularly with the addition of tranexamic acid, and our patient mix may explain the lower bleeding rate,” they wrote.
The most common indications for endoscopy in the present report were anemia, colorectal cancer screening or polyp surveillance, upper GI symptoms, and screening or surveillance of varices.
Many patients had conditions that might predispose them to bleeding, investigators said. Most commonly, those conditions included hepatitis C virus infection, cirrhosis, esophageal varices, and previous gastrointestinal bleeding.
Dr. Tomaszewski reported that he had no potential conflicts of interest related to the research. Coauthors reported financial disclosures related to AbbVie, Pfizer, Takeda, Janssen, and others.
SOURCE: Tomaszewski M et al. Haemophilia. 2019 Feb 12. doi: 10.1111/hae.13691