Intraoperative ketorolac and posttonsillectomy bleeding.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the occurrence of posttonsillectomy bleeding in patients who received intraoperative ketorolac tromethamine. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. SETTING: Academic tertiary care center. PATIENTS: Three hundred eleven patients who underwent tonsillectomy in an 18-month period. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Occurrence of bleeding complications in patients who received ketorolac during tonsillectomy. RESULTS: Fifty-eight of 311 patients who underwent tonsillectomy received intraoperative ketorolac with an overall postoperative bleeding rate of 17%. This high rate of bleeding complications compares with 4.4% in the remaining 253 patients who received traditional opioid analgesics. CONCLUSIONS: Until further controlled studies have been conducted, the use of ketorolac in patients undergoing tonsillectomy should be avoided because of the increased incidence of postoperative bleeding complications.