INTRAOPERATIVE KETOROLAC AND POSTTONSILLECTOMY BLEEDING

Objective: To determine the occurrence of post-tonsillectomy bleeding in patients who received intraoperative ketorolac tromethamine. Design : Retrospective analysis. Setting: Academic tertiary care center. Pati ents: Three hundred eleven patients who underwent tonsillectomy in an 18-month period. Main Outcome Measure: Occurrence of bleeding complica tions in patients who received ketorolac during tonsillectomy. Results : Fifty-eight of 311 patients who underwent tonsillectomy received int raoperative ketorolac with an overall postoperative bleeding rate of 1 7%. This high rate of bleeding complications compares with 4.4% in the remaining 253 patients who received traditional opioid analgesics. Co nclusions: Until further controlled studies have been conducted, the u se of ketorolac in patients undergoing tonsillectomy should be avoided because of the increased incidence of postoperative bleeding complica tions.