Comparison between use of direct oral anticoagulants and aspirin for risk of thromboembolism complications in patients undergoing total knee and hip arthroplasty: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective Total knee and hip arthroplasty are one of the most commonly consistently successful surgeries in orthopedics worldwide. Literature has reported that depending upon the age and co-existing treatments, patients undergoing total knee and hip arthroplasty are often prone to increased risks of developing venous thromboembolic complications. In such cases, chemoprophylaxis with either direct oral anticoagulant therapy with factor-Xa inhibitors (i.e., rivaroxaban, apixaban, dabigatran) and aspirin are widely recommended. Recent surveys suggest that direct oral anticoagulants and aspirin have comparable efficacy. However, there is no consensus in the literature as to which drug is the safest. Therefore, in this review, we shall attempt to evaluate the comparative efficacy between direct oral anticoagulant drugs and aspirin in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. To compare risk of venous thromboembolism complications between use of direct oral anticoagulant drugs and aspirin in patients undergoing total knee and hip arthroplasty. Materials and methods A sensitive and specific analysis of the literature was performed according to the Cochrane and written according to PRISMA guidelines (Supplementary Table I). Five electronic databases (Web of Science, Embase, CENTRAL, Scopus, and Medline) were evaluated. To compare the efficacy between the drugs we conducted a random-effect meta-analysis according to the outcome (bleeding complications, venous thromboembolism or pulmonary embolism) and overall mortality in patients undergoing total knee and hip arthroplasty. Results Overall, 993 studies were found of which 117 had their full texts evaluated. A total of 161,463 patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty with mean age equal 66.2 ± 5.0 years were identified in 14 studies. Higher risks of venous thromboembolism (OR: 1.56 95% CI 1.21-2.01), pulmonary embolism (OR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.31 -2.04) and overall mortality (OR: 1.35, 95% CI 1.04-1.74) for patients receiving aspirin were verified as compared to direct oral anticoagulant drugs. Subsequently, we further observed that the risks of bleeding complications (OR: 0.89 95% CI 0.67-1.18) were insignificant. Conclusions The study reports higher risks of venous thromboembolism, pulmonary embolism, and overall mortality for the patients receiving aspirin before undergoing.