Asian Spine J.  2015 Jun;9(3):483-491. 10.4184/asj.2015.9.3.483.

Blood Loss in Surgery for Aggressive Vertebral Haemangioma with and without Embolisation

• Robinson Y
• Sheta R
• Salci K
• Willander

• KMID: 2270152
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4184/asj.2015.9.3.483

Abstract

Despite their benign nature some symptomatic aggressive vertebral haemangiomas (AVH) require surgery to decompress spinal cord and/or stabilise pathological fractures. Preoperative embolisation may reduce the considerable blood loss during surgical decompression. This systematic review investigated whether preoperative embolisation reduced surgical blood loss during treatment of symptomatic AVH. PubMed Medline, Web of Science, and Ovid Medline were searched for case reports and clinical studies on surgical AVH treatment. Included were cases from all publications on surgical treatment of AVH where the amount of surgical blood loss and the use of preoperative embolisation were documented. 51 cases with surgically treated AVH were retrieved from the included studies. Blood loss in the embolised treatment group (980+/-683 mL) was lower than the non-embolised control group (1,629+/-946 mL). This systematic review found that embolisation prior to AVH resection reduced surgical blood loss (level of evidence, very low) and can be recommended (strong recommendation).

Keyword

Spinal cord compression; Hemangioma; Therapeutic embolisation; Surgical blood loss

MeSH Terms

Blood Loss, Surgical
Decompression, Surgical
Fractures, Spontaneous
Hemangioma
Spinal Cord
Spinal Cord Compression