Anticoagulant use and its effect on bleeding and complications in total knee arthroplasty

Currently, there is very limited literature on the effect of long term anticoagulants on total knee arthroplas ty. The primary purpose of this study was to deter mine the effect of warfarin and clopidogrel on the transfusion rate, intra-operative blood loss, and postoperative blood loss for total knee arthroplasty. The secondary purpose was to determine their effect on post operative wound complications and length of stay. Data was collected retrospectively from medical charts between 2003-2008 and case matched to a con trol group. The patients on warfarin had a higher rate of blood transfusion, blood loss, and length of hospital stay compared to the clopidogrel and control groups.