Heparin, Hematomas, and the Lumbar Fusion Anxiety Spiral

It’s postop day one. The patient is moving their legs. The drain looks reasonable. But somewhere deep in your subconscious lurks the ancient fear: the epidural hematoma. And right next to it, the equally unwelcome specter of venous thromboembolism (VTE). To heparin or not to heparin — that is the question.

This group of researchers decided to tackle this perennial debate with something spine surgeons respect deeply: a very large dataset and a propensity score match so clean it makes your pedicle screws look sloppy.