Can patients with femoral neck fracture benefit from preoperative thromboprophylaxis?

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of preoperative thromboprophylaxis remains obscure in patients with femoral neck fracture. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether these patients benefit from preoperative thromboprophylaxis. METHODS In this prospective, randomized controlled trial, a total of 80 patients with femoral neck fracture were randomly assigned to receive either rivaroxaban or conservative treatment before surgery. For all patients, color Doppler ultrasound of both lower extremities was performed immediately after admission. The primary efficacy outcome was venous thromboembolism (VTE) defined as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). The primary safety outcome was major bleeding. RESULT Compared with conservative treatment, rivaroxaban could significantly reduce the incidence of DVT from 19.5% (8/41) to 2.6% (1/39) (P = .016). Preoperatively, there were a total of 9 occurrences of DVT including 8 DVT in the conservative treatment group and 1 in the oral rivaroxaban group. All cases of DVT were asymptomatic, with 8 of them diagnosed as isolated muscular calf vein thromboses. There were no differences between the 2 groups in terms of the overall incidence of major bleeding. CONCLUSION Thromboprophylaxis with rivaroxaban prior to surgery can effectively reduce the risk of preoperative DVT for patients with femoral neck fracture without increasing the risk of bleeding.