Continuing Low Dose Aspirin Before Prostate Biopsy

Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided prostate biopsy (PB) is currently the standard for diagnosing prostate cancer and is one of the most commonly performed urologic procedures.

The complications that can occur after this procedure have been extensively described previously. Bleeding complications, namely hematuria, rectal bleeding, and hematospermia, are the most frequent, with a reported incidence of 20% to 70%, but they are almost exclusively self-limiting and of mild to moderate severity.

There is an increasing number of patients who require PB and antiplatelet medication simultaneously. This is because more middle-age and elderly patients are receiving long-term antithrombotic therapy mainly for prevention of cardiovascular events, and these patients form the majority of those at risk of prostate cancer. As with other surgical interventions, aspirin is typically discontinued 7 to 10 days before PB. However, discontinuing aspirin might increase the risk of cardiovascular events, while continuing aspirin before PB might not necessarily increase severe bleeding complications. Several studies have found no increase in bleeding complications in patients continuing low-dose aspirin. However, most of the studies were retrospective, and only one was randomized. Moreover, there has been no prospective randomized trial in East Asian patients, who have a lower risk of thrombosis and increased risk of bleeding during antithrombotic treatment for acute coronary syndrome than do white patients.

The aim of the present randomized study was to determine whether TRUS-guided PB performed in patients continuing low-dose aspirin (LDA) is associated with a greater incidence, duration, and severity of bleeding complications.