Introduction: Cervical haematoma is one of the local complications of carotid endarterectomy. Cervical haematoma may determine oesophageal compresion or tracheal deviation. We evaluated the correlation between cervical haematoma and preoperative antiplatelet treatment.
Material and methods: We evaluated retrospectively 100 consecutive patients operated with carotid endarterectomy between 2009 and 2011. Group A of 48 patients had monoantiaggregant preoperative treatment, group B of 52 patients had dual preoperative antiaggregant treatment.
Results: We observed cervical haematomas in 16 patients from the total of 100, 13 of them being in group B. Evaluation of age, sex, surgical technique and local drainage showed no differences between the two groups. The group with monoantiaggregant preoperative treatment had a smaller chance to develop cervical haematoma (p=0.022).
Conclusions: Preoperative antiplatelet treatment is crucial for a succesful carotid endarterectomy procedure. We sustain the use of monoantiaggregant preoperative treatment, which is associated with less cervical haematomas as a local haemorrhagic complication, instead of dual antiaggregant preoperative therapy.