Open AccessRivaroxaban in preventing venous thromboembolism after arthroplastic surgery in Taiwan
Author(s) -
Mao YunChuan,
Chen ShihTse,
Chen ChungHwan,
Hsieh KunPin,
Gan KimHong
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the kaohsiung journal of medical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.439
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 2410-8650
pISSN - 1607-551X
DOI - 10.1016/j.kjms.2015.08.003
Subject(s) - medicine , rivaroxaban , antithrombotic , incidence (geometry) , arthroplasty , venous thrombosis , medical prescription , low molecular weight heparin , thrombosis , venous thromboembolism , heparin , surgery , warfarin , pharmacology , atrial fibrillation , physics , optics
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is one of the severe complications of total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The incidence of VTE could be reduced if preventive antithrombotic medicines are used; however, the incidence of bleeding may increase. Rivaroxaban is a factor Xa inhibitor that prevents VTE after THA or TKA. This study is designed to confirm the efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban in Taiwan. This is a retrospective database study based on the data of 6996 patients provided by the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database from 2008 to 2012. The data included the number of prescription, the cost of prescription, and case number for patients treated with antithrombotic agents for the prevention or treatment of joint arthroplasty complications (including THA, TKA, partial hip arthroplasty, revision THA and TKA), and the incidence of thrombosis and hemorrhage from year 2008 to 2012. The overall postoperative VTE rate was 0.49%. Compared with other antithrombotic drugs, rivaroxaban and heparin analogs can reduce the percentage of thrombosis. We also found that the expenditure and hospitalization was less in the rivaroxaban group than in the heparin analogs group. Because some benefits of rivaroxaban were found in our study, further cost‐effective and drug safety studies are warranted. It is important to consider the cost‐effective principle for the use of antithrombotic drugs in preventing thromboembolic complications after total joint arthroplasty.