Evaluation of Bleeding Risk of Cataract Phacoemulsification in Patients with Long-term Aspirin Use after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

Purpose: It is a controversial issue whether to discontinue antithrombotic drugs during the perioperative period of cataract surgery. There are few reports on the safety of long-term aspirin use after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In this study, we evaluated the bleeding risk and surgical safety of cataract phacoemulsification in patients who took aspirin for a long time after PCI, so as to provide relevant evidence for this problem.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of the cases of cataract surgery. The incidence of bleeding-related complications in patients without history of antithrombotic drugs, patients without cardiac surgery who had taken aspirin at least 1 year for secondary prevention, and patients with long-term aspirin use 1 year after PCI were compared.

Results: A total of 81 patients (81 eyes, n = 81) after PCI (≥1 year) were collected. One hundred fifty-eight patients (158 eyes, n = 158) without cardiac surgery in the aspirin group and 285 patients (285 eyes, n = 285) without history of antithrombotic drugs were collected. Subconjunctival hemorrhage and hyphema occurred in all three groups, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). No other serious bleeding-related complications occurred in the three groups during the operation, 1 day and 1 week after operation.

Conclusion: No matter intraoperative or postoperative, bleeding-related complications are rare in patients after PCI, which demonstrates a certain degree of surgical safety and can prove the safety of cataract surgery without stopping antithrombotic drugs.