Intraoperative ketorolac and posttonsillectomy bleeding.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the occurrence of posttonsillectomy bleeding in patients who received intraoperative ketorolac tromethamine.

DESIGN

Retrospective analysis.

SETTING

Academic tertiary care center.

PATIENTS

Three hundred eleven patients who underwent tonsillectomy in an 18-month period.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Occurrence of bleeding complications in patients who received ketorolac during tonsillectomy.

RESULTS

Fifty-eight of 311 patients who underwent tonsillectomy received intraoperative ketorolac with an overall postoperative bleeding rate of 17%. This high rate of bleeding complications compares with 4.4% in the remaining 253 patients who received traditional opioid analgesics.

CONCLUSIONS

Until further controlled studies have been conducted, the use of ketorolac in patients undergoing tonsillectomy should be avoided because of the increased incidence of postoperative bleeding complications.