RESEARCH ARTICLE
Perioperative D-Dimer Levels in Patients with Musculoskeletal Tumors
Takeshi Morii*, Kazuo Mochizuki, Masazumi Kotera, Naoaki Imakiire, Takahiro Moriwaki, Kazuhiko Satomi
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 130
Last Page: 132
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-2-130
DOI: 10.2174/1874325000802010130
Article History:
Received Date: 3/6/2008Revision Received Date: 4/7/2008
Acceptance Date: 1/8/2008
Electronic publication date: 26/8/2008
Collection year: 2008

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
D-dimer (DD) levels have been reported as a sensitive but non-specific indicator for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). Few reports have examined perioperative DD levels in musculoskeletal tumor.
Materials/Methods:
Subjects comprised 77 patients who had undergone oncological resection of musculoskeletal tumor. DD levels were assessed preoperatively and on postoperative days 1 and 7. Multidetector-row computed tomography (MD-CT) was performed to detect DVT/PE for cases with DD level >10.0 µg/ml.
Results:
Mean preoperative DD level was 0.84 µg/ml. Significant elevation of postoperative DD levels was confirmed. DD levels were significantly changed by various clinical conditions, such as malignancy, age and prosthetic reconstruction. In 4 of 5 cases with postoperative DD levels >10.0 µg/ml, DVT/PE was detected.
Conclusion:
Activation of the coagulation system by surgery and heterogeneity of DD levels under various clinical conditions in musculoskeletal tumor patients were suggested.