Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in brain tumor patients undergoing craniotomy: a meta-analysis.

Brain tumor patients undergoing craniotomy generally receive prophylaxis against venous thromboembolism (VTE), but modalities in use differ widely and have been debated in the literature. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of VTE prophylaxis among brain tumor patients undergoing craniotomy. Ten randomized controlled trials were included in the final efficacy analysis. The various prophylactic measures employed in these studies reduced the risk for thrombosis compared to controls with an overall risk ratio of 0.61 (95 % CI: 0.47-0.79) in the fixed effect model. Although Cochrane Q-test showed unimportant heterogeneity across studies (p = 0.19) and the I