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Almost all patients who undergo total hip replacement (THR) or total knee replacement (TKR) receive aspirin or other antithrombotic agents to lower risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Practice guidelines vary in their recommendations by procedure and by country. For this meta-analysis, researchers identified 13 RCTs (with 6060 patients) in which aspirin was compared with low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH), rivaroxaban, or warfarin after THR (7 studies), TKR (3 studies), or both (3 studies). Duration of antithrombotic therapy ranged from 7 to 42 days.
Risk for VTE, deep venous thrombosis, or pulmonary embolism was not statistically different with aspirin compared with other agents. Bruising and lower limb edema was significantly less like…