Rates of bleeding, thrombosis, and survival in patients who underwent hematopoietic cell transplantation at king abdulaziz medical city, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Bleeding tendency and thrombosis are two major hematological complications observed in patients after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Although these complications are well reported in western communities, they are not well established in Saudi Arabia. OBJECTIVES: This retrospective study investigated the rates of bleeding, thrombosis, and survival in Saudi and non-Saudi patients who underwent HCT at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2010 to 2017. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 372 Saudi and non-Saudi patients of both sexes with leukemia, anemia disorders, lymphoma, and other types of pathological disorders who underwent autologous or allogeneic HCT were included in this study. Patient data including age, sex, nationality, type of cancer, transplant type, coagulation profile, date of operation and discharge, treatment, and other outpatient notes were collected and analyzed using the Chi-square test. RESULTS: The majority of our patients undergoing allogeneic transplantation had leukemia and other types of anemia disorders including aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia, and ß-thalassemia (79%). However, the majority of patients undergoing autologous transplantation (73.4%) had lymphoma and other types of pathological disorders, including liver cell carcinoma, nephroblastoma, neuroblastoma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and primitive neuroectodermal tumors. Among patients with leukemia, anemia disorders, lymphoma, and other pathological disorders, 2.2%, 1.4%, 1.4%, and 2.8% suffered from thrombosis (overall, 1.9%) and 9.5%, 8.6%, 5.6%, and 11.2% suffered from bleeding, respectively (overall 8.9%). Moreover, the 7-year survival rate among those patients was 82.5%. CONCLUSION: Bleeding occurred at a higher rate after HCT, and the overall 7-year survival rate was relatively high.