Abstract

Background: Perioperative medication management of spinal surgery patients is essential to minimize risk of complications and expedite patient recovery. Commonly prescribed medication regimens such as anticoagulants (e.g. aspirin, clopidogrel), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g. ibuprofen, naproxen) and immunosuppressants (e.g. methotrexate, cyclosporine) may predispose patients to excessive hemorrhaging, wound dehiscence, and surgical infections among other intra-operative and post-operative complications. Through an understanding of medication mechanisms, recommended use and disuse protocol, and how these medications pertain to individual circumstances, physicians are optimally informed to prepare patients for elective spinal surgery.

Study Design: Review of literature.

Methods: Numerous searches were conducted utilizing PubMed. The searches were filtered to be written in English and within twenty years.

Results: After review of relevant literature, different precautions must be taken depending on the type of medication (anti-coagulant, anti-platelet, non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs, immunosuppressants) and the individual perioperative health conditions. Patients on blood thinning regimens may need to discontinue use of prescribed medication as early as 10 days to 12 hours pre-operatively and may resume consumption as early as 12 hours post-operatively depending on the medication and perioperative health condition of the patient. Patients on nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may need to discontinue use as early as eight days to 12 hours pre-operatively and may not resume consumption of NSAIDs for up to three months post-operatively depending on medication and the patient’s perioperative health condition. Patients on immunosuppressant regimens may need to discontinue use as early as two months to eight hours pre-operatively and may resume post-operative consumption as early as one week or when the operative wounds have completely healed depending on the medication and the patient’s perioperative health condition.

Conclusion: Due to the invasive nature of spinal surgery, and the potential effect of various medications that can affect surgical outcomes, it is imperative that providers review patient medications for proper management during the perioperative period. In the future, additional research for new classes of drugs and medications where literature is currently scarce will help to reduce hospital admission lengths, complications post-operation and even death.

Keywords: Perioperative Pain Management; Anti-Coagulants; Anti-Platelets; Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs; Immunosuppressants; Spine Surgery

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Citation

Citation: Vivek Mohan., et al. “Perioperative Medication Management for Spinal Surgery" Acta Scientific Orthopaedics 3.5 (2020): 10-18.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Vivek Mohan., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.