The Effect of Preoperative Intravenous Tranexamic Acid on the Amount of Bleeding in Patients Undergoing Cleft Palate Reconstruction Surgery

Tranexamic acid (TXA) is an inexpensive therapy effective at minimizing perioperative blood loss and transfusion. However, it remains underutilized due to safety concerns. Cleft lip and cleft palate are among the most frequent congenital anomalies, accounting for 65% of head and neck anomalies, and 15000 neonates are born with these anomalies annually.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of preoperative intravenous TXA on hemorrhage in patients undergoing cleft palate reconstruction surgery in the Khatam Al-Anbia Hospital, Zahedan, Iran.

This clinical trial was conducted on 60 patients undergoing palatoplasty in the Khatam Al-Anbia Hospital. The patients were randomly assigned into two groups: TXA receivers and controls. Data were collected using information forms and then analyzed using SPSS ver. 22.

The mean age of the participants was 21.42 ± 9.46 months, and of the 60 patients, 31 were boys, and 29 were girls. The mean bleeding volume was 11.73 ± 4.42 milliliter in the TXA receiving group and 17.36 ± 4.99 milliliters in the control group, and the mean duration of surgery was 41.90 ± 8.00 and 49.93 ± 11.37 minutes in the TXA receiving and control groups, respectively. The mean PT, PTT, and Hb were not significantly different before and after surgery in the two groups.

Tranexamic acid causes a significant reduction in the duration of surgery and mean bleeding volume in palatoplasties, but it has no effects on PT, PTT, and Hb levels before and after surgery.