The role of thrombocytopenia in the clinical management of patients with liver cirrhosis: opinion of experts in therapeutic and surgical hepatology

Seven of the country’s leading experts in the field of therapeutic and surgical hepatology answer questions on this issue: how relevant is thrombocytopenia in patients with CLD for clinical practice, what is the average proportion of patients who need correction of thrombocytopenia before scheduled and emergency surgical/invasive interventions and how is thrombocytopenia correction performed. All experts are unanimous in the opinion that thrombocytopenia is most common at the stage of cirrhosis. Further, the experts discussed the issues of the total number of patients with CLD, the proportion of patients with thrombocytopenia at all, the proportion of patients with thrombocytopenia in need of surgical interventions, the experts were asked to provide schemes for correcting thrombocytopenia, which they use in their clinical practice. The focus of the experts’ attention was on the discussion of patients who have a platelet level of less than 50 000/?l and need scheduled surgical interventions / invasive procedures. All experts unanimously stratify these interventions according to the risk of hemorrhagic complications: high – more than 1.5%, low – less than 1.5%. The most common and available method for the correction of thrombocytopenia at present is platelet transfusion. Details of all this information, as well as statistical data, can be found in this article.