Published online: 2020-11-13 Review Article 553 Hemorrhage in Essential Thrombocythemia or Polycythemia Vera: Epidemiology, Location, Risk Factors, and Lessons Learned from the Literature Christophe Nicol1 Karine Lacut2,3 Brigitte Pan-Petesch1,3 Eric Lippert4,5 Jean-Christophe Ianotto1,3,5 1 Service d’Hématologie Clinique, Institut de Cancéro-Hématologie, Address for correspondence Christophe Nicol, MD, Service CHRU de Brest, Bretagne, France d’Hématologie Clinique, Institut de Cancéro-Hématologie, CHRU de 2 Département de Médecine Interne et Pneumologie, CHRU de Brest, Brest, 29200 Bretagne, France Bretagne, France (e-mail:
[email protected]). 3 GETBO, Groupe d’Etude de la Thrombose de Bretagne Occidentale, CHRU de Brest, Brest, Bretagne, France 4 Laboratoire d’Hématologie, CHRU de Brest, Bretagne, France 5 FIM, France Intergroupe des Néoplasies Myéloprolifératives, France Thromb Haemost 2021;121:553–564. Abstract Hemorrhage is a well-known complication of essential thrombocythemia (ET) and polycy- themia vera (PV), but evidence-based data on its management and prevention are lacking to help inform clinicians. In this review, appropriate published data from the past 15 years regarding bleeding epidemiology, classification, location, and risk factors are presented and discussed. Research was conducted using the Medline database. The bleeding classifications were heterogeneous among the collected studies. The median incidences of bleeding and major bleeding were 4.6 and 0.79% patients/year, in ET patients and 6.5 and 1.05% patients/year in PV patients, respectively. The most frequent location was the gastrointestinal tract. Bleeding accounted for up to 13.7% of deaths, and cerebral bleeding was the main cause of lethal hemorrhage.