Cessation or Continuation of Aspirin in Patients Undergoing 20-gauge Pars Plana Vitrectomy due to Diabetic Retinopathy

This study aimed to evaluate the incidence of ocular hemorrhages in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) undergoing 20-gauge pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) taking aspirin as an antiplatelet agent versus those who did not take any aspirin.
A total of 180 patients (mean age of 60.5 ± 9.9 years) with PDR referred to Baqiyatallah University Hospital in 2016 were enrolled in aspirin and control groups each group containing 90 patients. All participants underwent a standard 20-gauge diabetic PPV. Laboratory data, including fasting blood sugar, prothrombin time, partial thromboplastin, bleeding time, and platelets count, and intraoperative data, including bleeding and its type (retinal, subretinal, vitreous, conjunctival, sub-conjunctival, and hyphema), were collected and analyzed using SPSS16 software.
Bleeding occurred in 56 patients. There were no significant differences in the incidence of bleeding between aspirin (33 patients) and control groups (23 patients) (P= 0.1). Likewise, no significant differences were observed in the type of bleeding between the two groups (P= 0.11). Age, gender, hypertension, type of operation, and laboratory findings were not significant between patients with and without bleeding.
The results of this study indicated that taking aspirin is not associated with a higher risk of post-PPV surgery bleeding in comparison with the control group. Additionally, the type of bleeding did not significantly differ between the two groups. Hence, there is no urgent need for discontinuation of this medication in diabetic patients undergoing PPV