Morbidly Obese Patients Undergoing Primary Total Joint Arthroplasty May Experience Higher Rates of Venous Thromboembolism When Prescribed Direct Oral Anticoagulants vs Aspirin.

BACKGROUND: Morbidly obese (body mass index [BMI] >40 kg/m2) patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty (TJA) are at high risk for postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE); however, there is debate surrounding the optimal pharmacologic agent for prevention of VTE after TJA in this patient subset. Current guidelines recommend against direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in patients of BMI >40 kg/m2 due to low quality evidence justifying their use. We evaluated whether patients of BMI >40 kg/m2 undergoing primary unilateral TJA would have increased risk of postoperative VTE if prescribed DOACs compared to non-DOAC agents such as aspirin. METHODS: This retrospective study analyzed 897 patients of BMI >40 kg/m2 undergoing primary unilateral TJA. Demographic and comorbidity-related variables were collected. The association between postoperative VTE and prophylactic pharmacologic agent prescribed was evaluated by multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: After controlling for comorbidities, we found that the sole use of DOACs, specifically apixaban, for VTE prophylaxis was associated with an increased risk of developing VTE compared to prophylaxis with aspirin alone in patients of BMI >40 kg/m2 (odds ratio 2.962, P = .016). Regardless of VTE prophylactic agent, patients with BMI >40 kg/m2 undergoing TKA had at least 4.5-fold increased odds of developing VTE compared to patients undergoing THA (OR 4.830, P = .019). CONCLUSION: In our retrospective study of a large sample size of patients with BMI >40 kg/m2, we found that the use of DOACs, specifically apixaban, for VTE prophylaxis following TJA was associated with increased odds of a VTE complication compared to the use of aspirin alone.

Establishing a recommended duration of blood glucose monitoring in nondiabetic patients following orthopaedic surgery.

Previous studies have demonstrated that blood glucose (BG) levels should be monitored for at least 1 week after orthopaedic surgery in diabetic patients, but no study has determined how long nondiabetic patients should be monitored. As postoperative elevations in BG have deleterious effects, determining a duration for monitoring the BG of nondiabetic patients after major orthopaedic surgery is needed to detect hyperglycemic events, create comprehensive protocols for nondiabetic orthopaedic patients, and reduce adverse outcomes. A retrospective study was conducted including consecutive patients who underwent a major orthopaedic surgery at a community hospital. A BG level of 150 mg/dl was the cutoff used to define hyperglycemia according to our institutional guidelines. A χ2 , analysis of variance, and subgroup analysis were performed separately. Greater than 67% of nondiabetic patients experienced a high BG level (>150 mg/dl) after surgery. We found that nondiabetic patients reached their postoperative maximum BG level at 20 h, which was sooner compared to diabetic patients. We discovered more than 92% of nondiabetic patients reached a maximum BG levels within the first 72 h of hospitalization, while the BG levels after this period were found to be within normal limits in greater than 87% of cases. We propose that BG management be instituted in nondiabetics from the preoperative period to 72 h after surgery, including patients who are same-day discharges. There may not be a need to continue inpatient BG monitoring beyond the first 72 h for nondiabetic hospitalized patients with extended hospitalizations.