In our study, the main finding included: 1) According to the monitoring results of TEG, in comparison with primary THA patients, revision THA patients were more prone to hypercoagulation on postoperation. 2) R, MA, CI were independent risk factors for patients with a postoperative hypercoagulable state, indicating that TEG is important in predicting postoperative hypercoagulable state. 3) Rivaroxaban didn't effectively reduce the incidence of the postoperative hypercoagulable state.
Studies have shown that operation time is an independent risk factor for patients with thrombosis after surgery[4, 18]. In our study, the operation time of the revision THA was significantly longer than the primary THA, which may be one of the reasons for the higher incidence of postoperative hypercoagulation. The main risk factors of hypercoagulability include sepsis, inflammation, blood stasis, the trauma of surgery, atherosclerosis, physical disruption of the endothelium, and it manifests selectively in thrombophilia. [19, 20] In our study, intraoperative blood loss and blood transfusion rates of the revision THA are higher than the primary THA, which means that the surgical trauma of the revision THA is greater, and the blood vessel wall damage and blood stasis of the revision THA are more serious. This may also be the reason for the higher incidence of hypercoagulation of revision THA. In addition, In a study by Ng et al, the development of a hypercoagulable state is related to mild to moderate degree of intraoperative blood loss[21]. In our study, intraoperative blood loss of the revision THA was significantly more than the primary THA, which may play a role in inducing hypercoagulable state. Red blood cell (RBC) transfusions may increase postoperative hypercoagulable state and surgery and perioperative RBC transfusions may have synergistic effects of increased related risk for VTE development[22]. The mechanism may be related to the submicron vesicles released during the storage of red blood cells. These particles have certain biological activities, which can lead to hypercoagulability in patients receiving a blood transfusion in a short time[23].All in all, in comparison with primary THA, the reasons for the higher incidence of hypercoagulation in revision THA include longer operation time, greater surgical trauma, more intraoperative blood loss, and higher blood transfusion rate.
In our study, R, MA, and CI were independent risk factors for THA patients with postoperative hypercoagulability. Our study found consistent results with previous research. In 2005, a study by Douglas et al.[24]was the first time evidence was reported that demonstrated the association between hypercoagulability state measured by TEG and postoperative thromboembolic complications in surgical patients. And TEG is a useful adjunctive test for the assessment of thrombus, even if conventional coagulation screen methods were normal[13]. The results of an observational study suggest that an increase in R is associated with a decrease in the incidence of VTE, in contrast, a decrease in R indicates that patients tend to be hypercoagulable and the risk of DVT is higher[25]. Crath et al.[24] prospectively included 240 patients undergoing surgery and found that the increase in MA is closely related to the postoperative hypercoagulable state and thrombotic complications, and the risk of thrombotic complications in postoperative hypercoagulable patients is higher. The increase in MA value is As an important tool for identifying high-risk patients with thrombotic complications. In addition, the increased CI value is a sensitive indicator for predicting postoperative hypercoagulable state and thrombotic complications, and can guide the perioperative anticoagulation scheme[13, 14, 24]. In summary,TEG is a sensitive method to detect the evaluation of coagulation in the perioperative period of primary/revision THA. And TEG is an effective indicator for predicting postoperative hypercoagulability in patients with THA.
In our institution, we routinely use rivaroxaban to prevent thrombosis. However, the incidence of postoperative hypercoagulation in the revision THA exceeded 70%, and the incidence of postoperative hypercoagulation in the primary THA also exceeded 60%. The previous study found rivaroxaban prolongs R and K, while decreasing α angle and MA[26]. Therefore the explanation for hypercoagulable state may be the recommended dose of rivaroxaban was insufficient or some patients are not sensitive to rivaroxaban. Rivaroxaban, an oral direct factor Xa inhibitor, been proven safe and efficacious. In 2020, a study of Hernandez-Juarez et al.[27] showed that even a high dose of rivaroxaban did not affect platelet aggregation. This may be the reason that the proportion of platelet hypercoagulation and mixed hypercoagulation increased significantly with the extension of postoperative time. In conclusion, the use of rivaroxaban anticoagulation alone after THA cannot effectively reduce the incidence of postoperative hypercoagulability, especially platelet hypercoagulability and mixed hypercoagulability. Among the chemopreventive drugs recommended by ACCP9, aspirin and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) are in the same position as rivaroxaban[28]. Therefore, when clinicians choose anticoagulants, they tend to use them according to the routine of each center, and there is no uniform standard. Based on the results of this study, anticoagulation with rivaroxaban combined with antiplatelet drugs (such as aspirin) after THA may be an effective method to reduce the incidence of postoperative hypercoagulability. Of course, we need further research to verify its safety and effectiveness.
There are several limitations to this study. This is a retrospective study, which may be more susceptible to selection bias. Furthermore, a relatively small number of cases, short follow-up, and no routine Color Duplex ultrasound might have concealed the incidence rate of VTE or hypercoagulable state. Despite these limitations, we believe that our study is worth a presentation. Because, to our knowledge, only a handful of literature has reported coagulation monitoring by TEG following primary arthroplasty, but there is no data regarding TEG after revision THA.This is the first study that applied TEG to evaluate the coagulation of revision THA.