Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been used to reduce
blood loss during total hip arthroplasty (THA), but its use could increase
the risk of venous thromboembolic disease (VTE). Several studies
have reported that TXA does not increase the prevalence of deep
vein thrombosis (DVT), but most of those used routine chemical thromboprophylaxis,
thereby masking the potential increased risk of TXA on VTE. We wished
to ascertain whether TXA increases the prevalence of VTE in patients
undergoing THA without routine chemical thromboprophylaxis. We carried
out a retrospective case-control study in 254 patients who underwent
a primary THA, 127 of whom received TXA (1 g given pre-operatively)
and a control group of 127 who did not. All patients had mechanical
but no chemical thomboprophylaxis. Each patient was examined for
DVT by bilateral ultrasonography pre-operatively and on post-operative
days 1 and 7. TXA was found to statistically significantly increase
the incidence of total DVT on post-operative day 7 compared with
the control group (24 (18.9%) and 12 (9.4%), respectively; p <
0.05) but most cases of DVT were isolated distal DVT, with the exception
of one patient with proximal DVT in each group. One patient in the control
group developed a non-fatal symptomatic pulmonary embolism (PE).
The use of TXA did not appear to affect the prevalence of either
proximal DVT or PE. Cite this article:
