Aspirin:A New Choice for Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism after Arthroplasty

Venous thromboembolism is a serious complication after orthopedics arthroplasty, which could result in significant loss of patients' satisfaction with the artificial joint. In some extreme cases, it also could lead to the death from respiratory and circulatory failure. The most important and effective method to prevent this complication is preoperative anti-coagulation therapy that could greatly reduce the incidence of venous thromboembolism after arthroplasty. Anticoagulant drugs, such as low molecular weight heparin, Xa factor inhibitors, are the first choices for anti-coagulation therapy after arthroplasty. These drugs have certain effectiveness and low risk of postoperative bleeding, but there are still some deficiencies, including expensiveness, parenteral administration, and so on. Aspirin is a historical antiplatelet drug. Now some guides and researches suggest it also can be a choice for the prevention of venous thromboembolism after arthroplasty. In these researches, aspirin was found to have similar prophylactic effect and safety compared to anticoagulant drugs in the prevention of venous thromboembolism after arthroplasty. Aspirin is cheaper and economical. It can be administered orally, which is convenient for patients. Some researchers also believe aspirin has a lower bleeding rate compared with anticoagulant drugs. In terms of drug dose, low-dose aspirin has a sufficient preventive effect for venous throm-boembolism, which could reduce the side effect of gastrointestinal adverse reactions. In conclusion, aspirin is a new choice for the prevention of venous thromboembolism after arthroplasty.