No Anti-clotting Treatment Needed for Most Kids Undergoing Spine Surgeries

According to a new Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study, blood clots occur so rarely in children undergoing spine operations that most patients require nothing more than vigilant monitoring after surgery and should be spared risky and costly anti-clotting medications. The findings, recently published online in the journal Spine, narrow down the pool of high-risk patients and should help clinicians better determine which children might benefit from treatment with anti-clotting drug. The results of the study are based on a review of surgical outcomes among nearly 22,000 children nationwide who had spinal fusion surgery between 2001 and 2010. Overall, blood clots were rare — 21 episodes for 10,000 surgeries, on average — and no patients died as a result of one, the study found. But heightened risk emerged in certain subgroups. To learn more about the study, click here.