Hemorrhage following transoral robotic surgery (TORS)

Abstract

Background

To report our experience of postoperative hemorrhage in patients following transoral robotic surgery (TORS).

Methods

Data was collected on patients having TORS. Postoperative hemorrhage within 30 days was graded using the Mayo clinic grading system.

Results

TORS operations were performed on 122 patients. There were 23 bleeding events classified as minor to severe following 19 operations (16%). Hemorrhage requiring a return to the operating room occurred after 7 operations (6%). The odds of an emergent hemorrhage was 5.19 times greater in patients that had a staged neck dissection after TORS (p= 0.05). The odds of a postoperative bleeding event were 2.6 times greater in patients receiving a larger resection (p=0.107). There were no hemorrhage events in the 36 patients who received a synchronous neck dissection with transcervical ligation of the external carotid artery.

Conclusions

Surgical intervention for TORS hemorrhage occurred in 6% patients. No haemorrhage occurred in patients who had ligation of the external carotid artery.

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