Therapeutic Application of Fibrinogen in Spine Surgery: A Review Article

Background: The aim of this review is to investigate current uses of fibrinogen as a tool to reduce operative and postoperative blood loss in different surgical fields especially orthopedic spine surgery. This is a systematic review.

Methods: MEDLINE (via Ovid 1946 to June 1, 2020) and Embase (via Ovid 1947 to June 1, 2020) were searched using the keywords “fibrinogen”, “surgery”, and “spine” for relevant studies. The search strategy used text words and relevant indexing to identify articles discussing the use of fibrinogen to control surgical blood loss.

Results: The original literature search yielded 407 articles from which 68 duplications were removed. Three hundred thirty-nine abstracts and titles were screened. Results were separated by surgical specialties.

Conclusions: Multiple studies have looked at the role of fibrinogen for acute bleeding in the operative setting. The current evidence regarding the use of fibrinogen concentrate in spine surgery is promising but limited, even though this is a field with the potential for severe hemorrhage. Further trials are required to understand the utility of fibrinogen concentrate as a first-line therapy in spine surgery and to understand the importance of target fibrinogen levels and subsequent dosing and administration to allow recommendations to be made in this field.