Loading...
Orthopedists are using aspirin increasingly to prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE) after total hip or knee arthroplasty. Because of aspirin's potential effect on arterial — in addition to venous — thrombosis, researchers in Philadelphia conducted this single-center retrospective study to examine whether aspirin prophylaxis might lower overall mortality after total joint arthroplasty. Between 2000 and 2017, 8000 patients received aspirin prophylaxis for 4 weeks, and 23,000 received other antithrombotic agents.
At 1 month, mortality was 0.1% with aspirin and 0.3% with other agents (P=0.004). In multivariate analysis, mortality remained significantly lower with aspirin (adjusted odds ratio, 0.4). Among 60 deaths in the nonaspirin group at 1 mo…