Effective Prevention for Portal Venous System Thrombosis After Splenectomy: A Meta-Analysis

Portal venous system thrombosis (PVST) is a common and potentially life-threatening complication of splenectomy for portal hypertension due to cirrhosis. A meta-analysis was conducted to study the necessity of pharmacologic prophylaxis of PVST after splenectomy and how to select the feasible treatment method. Articles were searched through the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library databases, and CNKI. Overall, 404 articles were initially identified, and 11 of them were eligible. Among these selected articles, 7 articles were associated with the necessity of anticoagulation for prevention of PVST, while 5 were about the drug selection. We first demonstrated that the incidence of PVST after splenectomy was significantly lower in patients who received the preventive measures than in those who did not (odds ratio [OR]: 0.22, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.13-0.39, P