The administration of tranexamic acid for corrective surgery involving eight or more spinal levels: A systematic review and meta-analysis

As the number of fusion levels increases, the complexity of spinal correction surgery also increases. Thus, we conducted this study to determine the safety and efficacy of tranexamic acid (TXA) involving eight or more spinal fusion levels. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) guidelines, a search of the PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases was conducted for relevant studies published prior to May 30, 2019. The primary outcomes, including blood loss and transfusion requirement, and the secondary outcomes, including general indices, postoperative hemoglobin, and coagulation function, were analyzed using Rev Man 5.3.5 software and STATA version 12.0. Eight randomized controlled trials (473 participants) were included in the study. Compared to the control treatments, TXA reduced intraoperative blood loss, total blood loss, transfusion volume, and prothrombin time. There were no significant differences between the TXA and non-TXA groups in transfusion rate, operative time, hospital stay, complications, hemoglobin level, and other coagulation function parameters. In the pediatric subgroup analysis, TXA additionally improved hemoglobin levels, platelet count, and prothrombin time international normalized ratio. The present meta-analysis showed that TXA reduced blood loss and transfusion volume in both adults and children. In pediatric patients, TXA led to a greater benefit in postoperative hemoglobin levels and coagulation function. Intravenous TXA is safe and effective in children with eight or more spinal corrective levels.