Initial Experience with Aspirin Use During Robotic Radical Prostatectomy

Abstract Background: New cardiology guidelines recommend antiplatelet therapy for some patients with cardiac stents. Aspirin use is relatively contraindicated during urologic surgery because of increased bleeding risk. We sought to review the outcomes of patients who continued aspirin during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Patients and Methods: Between October 2007 and February 2010, 249 patients underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy by a single surgeon. After consultation with the patients' cardiologists, 6 patients had coronary artery stents and continued aspirin perioperatively (Group 1), and 7 patients had coronary artery stents but did not continue aspirin perioperatively (Group 2). The remaining 236 patients had no coronary artery stents and did not require continued aspirin (Group 3). We analyzed our patients' preoperative characteristics, including age, prostate-specific antigen volume, and D'Amico risk, as well as operative time, blood loss, hematocrit changes, transfusion requirem...