The Role of Aspirin and Unfractionated Heparin Combination Therapy Immediately After Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2018

Publication Title

Orthopedics

Abstract

Aspirin and unfractionated heparin (UH) are accepted options for venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis after total joint arthroplasty (TJA). The use of aspirin in addition to UH in preventing VTE after TJA has yet to be studied. The primary objective of this study was to determine VTE rates in patients receiving aspirin monotherapy and those receiving aspirin and UH combination therapy immediately following TJA. A TJA database from a single hospital system was retrospectively reviewed to identify all patients who underwent primary hip or knee arthroplasty from 2013 to 2016. Patients were divided into 3 groups based on postoperative VTE chemoprophylaxis: aspirin only, aspirin with 1 dose of UH, and aspirin with multiple doses of UH. There were 5350 patients included: 1024 aspirin only, 1695 aspirin plus 1 dose of UH, and 2631 aspirin plus multiple doses of UH. Deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolus rates did not vary significantly between groups (deep venous thrombosis: 1.1%, 0.9%, and 1.2%, respectively, P=.701; pulmonary embolus: 0.3%, 0.3%, and 0.2%, respectively, P=.894). Transfusion rates were significantly greater with 1 dose of UH (1.8%) and multiple doses of UH (4.3%) compared with aspirin only (0.9%) (P

Volume

41

Issue

3

First Page

171

Last Page

176

DOI

10.3928/01477447-20180320-08

ISSN

1938-2367

PubMed ID

29570760

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