Objective: To determine the effect of a single intravenous dose of tranexamic acid on intraoperative bleeding, duration of surgery and surgical field visualization during endoscopic sinus surgery. Methods: Study Design: Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Setting: Tertiary Government Hospital in Quezon City Participants: 10 patients aged 18-75 years old diagnosed with chronic rhinosinusitis with or without nasal polyposis and unresponsive to medical treatment, who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery from September 2016 to August 2017, were randomly allocated to treatment group and control group respectively. The “odd” numbers were assigned to the treatment group (intravenous Tranexamic acid) given 1 dose of 100mg/ml (500mg tranexamic acid per 5 ml) tranexamic acid slow intravenous drip 1 hour prior to the procedure, while the “even” numbers assigned to the control group received the same amount of normal saline solution. Results: The mean duration of surgery of the tranexamic group was 185 minutes (standard deviation, SD 55.23) and the control group was 122.6 minutes (SD 42.03) showing no significant difference (p=.08). The mean blood loss of the tranexamic group was less at 240ml (SD 108.39) compared with the control group at 290ml (SD 74.16), although there was no statistically significant difference (p=.42). Intraoperative surgical field assessed by the surgeon based on the Boezart grading scale showed that 2 (40%) of the tranexamic group had higher bleeding score compared with the placebo group. However, this was not found to be statistically significant (p=.460). Due to the small sample size, a type II error occurred with alpha level of 0.05 and estimated power of 0.0885, with not enough basis to refute that a single dose of intravenous tranexamic acid has no effect in improving surgical field visualization during endoscopic sinus surgery. No drug side effects were noted after administration until after surgery. Conclusion Single dose intravenous tranexamic acid in functional endoscopic sinus surgery decreased mean intraoperative blood loss (but this was statistically insignificant), but its effect on surgical field visualization cannot totally be assessed due to small sample size. There was also no change in the observed duration of surgery. No untoward side effects associated were noted from administration of the drug until after the surgery finished.
Administration, Intravenous ; Tranexamic Acid ; Sinusitis

Objective: To present our surgical experience and technique in performing endoscopic sinus surgery for vascular sinonasal tumors without pre-operative embolization using intraoperative ligation of the external carotid artery or its distal branches. Methods: Design: Retrospective Series. Setting: Tertiary Private Teaching Hospital. Participants: Seven Patients. Results: Out of 7 patients (5 males, 2 females, aged 12 to 64 years old) with non-embolized vascular sinonasal tumors, 2 had juvenile angiofibroma, 3 had a benign vascular tumor (hemangiopericytoma, hemangioma and a vasoformative solitary fibrous tumor), and 2 had a malignancy (rhabdomyosarcoma, squamous cell carcinoma). Four (57.1%) had external carotid artery ligation, two (28.6%) had internal maxillary artery ligation and one (14.2%) had sphenopalatine artery ligation. The mean intraoperative blood loss was 2447.1 mL (range 900mL to 5,000mL) and average operation duration was 7.6 hours (range 2.9 hours to 14.5 hours). The average amount of transfused blood products was 1785.7mL (zero to 3,000mL). The average hospital stay was 7 days (range 2 to 13 days) with one post-operative complication (ICU admission for hypotension from intraoperative blood loss). Conclusion Intraoperative ligation of the ECA or its distal branches to disrupt the vascular supply of sinonasal tumors may provide a viable means of preventing excessive intraoperative blood loss in patients with non-embolized vascular sinonasal tumors.
Cardiovascular System ; Neoplasms, Vascular Tissue