Loading...
Total or partial knee arthroplasty and total or partial hip arthroplasty pose strikingly high risks for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Accordingly, payers, regulators, and professional societies have focused efforts on decreasing rates of post-operative deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
In a systematic review of 40 randomized and 7 observational studies involving 44,000 patients, researchers estimated postsurgical VTE rates prior to discharge in patients receiving appropriate VTE prophylaxis with a low-molecular-weight heparin, a factor Xa inhibitor, or a thrombin inhibitor. Studies were evenly split between knee and hip arthroplasty. Patients received VTE prophylaxis for an average of 8 days, and were followed for a mean of 13 day…