Effects of PFA-100 in Preoperative Screening for von Willebrand Disease in 310 Patients

The purpose of any screening test is to identify disease early enough for therapeutic intervention to be effective. Therefore preoperative coagulation studies are employed in order to identify the 2–4% of all patients undergoing surgery who experience hemorrhagic complications. However, the predictive value of preoperative laboratory coagulation screening is questionable [1, 2]. The best screening tool for von Willebrand disease (vWD) is still the bleeding time (BT) which is problematic in the pediatric setting. We wanted to assess the role of the PFA-100, which provides a global measure for primary hemostasis [3], in screening for vWD in children before surgery.