Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the coagulation difference in patients with either rivaroxaban or enoxaparin as thromboprophylaxis after total hip arthroplasty (THA) regarding thromboelastography (TEG) and routine coagulation tests. Patients and methods: Two hundred and twenty-eight patients undergoing primary THA were recruited in this study. They were divided into two groups according to a computer-generated random sequence. Patients in the rivaroxaban group received 10 mg of rivaroxaban orally once daily. Patients in the enoxaparin group received 4000 AxaIU (0.4 mL) of enoxaparin subcutaneously once daily. Rivaroxaban and enoxaparin were started 6-8 h after surgery. The administration of the anticoagulant prophylaxis was lasted for a minimum of 14 days. TEG and routine coagulation tests were performed on the day before the operation and 1 day and 7 days after the operation. Results: No difference was observed in the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE) between the two groups. There was no significant difference with regard to prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (PTT), international normalized ratio (INR), and thrombin time (TT) between the two groups. However, while considering TEG, R time of the rivaroxaban group was significantly higher than that of the enoxaparin group (p = 0.003), whereas the maximum amplitude (MA) (p = 0.036) value and coagulation index (CI) (p = 0.002) value were significantly lower than those of the enoxaparin group. Conclusion: With regard to TEG analysis, there was coagulation difference in patients with rivaroxaban and those with enoxaparin as thromboprophylaxis after THA. Under recommended dose of rivaroxaban and enoxaparin, patients undergoing THA were in hypercoagulability on 7days postoperative.
Keywords: anticoagulation; enoxaparin; rivaroxaban; thromboelastography; total hip arthroplasty.