Does Celecoxib Prescription for Pain Management Affect Post-tonsillectomy Hemorrhage Requiring Surgery? A Retrospective Observational Cohort Study.

Background: Adenotonsillectomy and tonsillectomy (referred to as tonsillectomy hereafter) are common pediatric surgeries. Postoperative complications include hemorrhage requiring surgery (2 to 3% of cases) and pain. Although nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are commonly administered for postsurgical pain, controversy exists regarding bleeding risk with cyclooxygenase-1 inhibition and associated platelet dysfunction. Preliminary evidence suggests selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors, for example celecoxib, effectively manage pain without adverse events including bleeding. Given the paucity of data for routine celecoxib use after tonsillectomy, this study was designed to investigate the association between postoperative celecoxib prescription and post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage requiring surgery using chart-review data from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

Methods: After ethics approval, a retrospective single-center observational cohort study was performed in children less than 18 yr of age undergoing tonsillectomy from January 2007 to December 2017. Cases of adenoidectomy alone were excluded due to low bleed rates. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage requiring surgery. The association between a celecoxib prescription and post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage requiring surgery was estimated using inverse probability of treatment weighting based on propensity scores and using generalized estimating equations to accommodate clustering by surgeon.

Results: An initial patient cohort of 6,468 was identified, and 5,846 children with complete data were included in analyses. Median (interquartile range) age was 6.10 (4.40, 9.00) yr, and 46% were female. In the cohort, 28.1% (n = 1,644) were prescribed celecoxib. Among the 4,996 tonsillectomy patients, 1.7% (n = 86) experienced post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage requiring surgery. The proportion with post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage requiring surgery among patients who had a tonsillectomy and were or were not prescribed celecoxib was 1.94% (30 of 1,548; 95% CI, 1.36 to 2.75) and 1.62% (56 of 3,448; 95% CI, 1.25 to 2.10), respectively. Modeling did not identify an association between celecoxib prescription and increased odds of post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage requiring surgery (odds ratio = 1.4; 95% CI, 0.85 to 2.31; P = 0.20).

Conclusions: Celecoxib does not significantly increase the odds of post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage requiring surgery, after adjusting for covariates. This large pediatric cohort study of celecoxib administered after tonsillectomy provides compelling evidence for safety but requires confirmation with a multisite randomized controlled trial.

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