Matthew Hess, M.D., a PGY-5 in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, has won second place in the Chestley L. Yelton Resident Essay Competition for his paper, “Intravenous Tranexamic Acid Decreases Intraoperative Transfusion Requirements and Does Not Increase Incidence of Venous Thromboembolic Events in Musculoskeletal Sarcoma Surgery.”

Hess’ paper discusses using tranexamic acid to decrease blood transfusion requirements and decrease operative time in patients with bone or soft tissue sarcomas who undergo wide surgical resection. 

“We are one of the early studies to show that intravenous tranexamic acid can be safely used without increasing the risk of venous thromboembolic events in this specific oncologic population of patients,” said Hess. “We started using the medicine routinely in 2012 and thus have a long period of time in which we have examined its use. Dr. Siegel is the senior author on the study and we primarily examined his patients.” 

As a second-place winner of the Yelton award, Hess will receive $1,000 and present his paper during the Alabama Orthopaedic Society/Mississippi Orthopaedic Society (AOS/MOS) Joint Annual Meeting. The meeting will take place in Destin, Florida, May 18-20.