Efficacy and safety of single- and double-dose intravenous tranexamic acid in hip and knee arthroplasty: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: With the increasing prevalence of osteoarthritis of the hip and knee, total joint replacement, the end-stage treatment, provides pain relief and restoration of function, but is often associated with massive blood loss. Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been reported to reduce perioperative blood loss in hip or knee arthroplasty. However, the optimal dose of TXA administration remains controversial. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis combining data from 5 trials comparing the efficacy and safety of one fixed dose of 1 g intravenously administered TXA with two doses of 1 g each administered intravenously for hip or knee arthroplasty. METHODS: PubMed, Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library were searched from January 2000 to February 2023. Our meta-analysis included randomized controlled trials and cohort studies comparing the efficacy and safety of different doses of intravenous TXA (IV-TXA) for THA or TKA. The observation endpoints included total blood loss, postoperative hemoglobin drop, blood transfusion rate, length of hospital stay, incidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT), and incidence of pulmonary embolism (PE). Meta-analysis was performed according to Cochrane's guidelines and PRISMA statement. The Danish RevMan5.3 software was used for data merging. RESULTS: Five cohort studies involving 5542 patients met the inclusion criteria. Our meta-analysis showed that the two groups were significantly higher in total blood loss (mean difference (MD) = − 65.60, 95% confidence interval (CI) [− 131.46, 0.26], P = 0.05); blood transfusion rate (risk difference (RD) = 0.00, 95% CI [− 0.01, 0.02], P = 0.55); postoperative hemoglobin (MD = 0.02, 95% CI [− 0.09, 0.13], P = 0.31); postoperative hospital stay days (MD = − 0.13), 95% CI [− 0.35, 0.09], P = 0.25); DVT (RD = 0.00, 95% CI [− 0.00, 0.01], P = 0.67); PE (RD = 0.00, 95% CI [− 0.01, 0.00], P = 0.79). There was some inherent heterogeneity due to variance in sample size across each major study. CONCLUSION: 1 dose of 1 g and 2 doses of 1 g IV-TXA each time have similar effects on reducing blood loss, blood transfusion rate, postoperative hemoglobin level, and postoperative hospital stay after TKA or THA, without increasing the risk of postoperative complications risk. For patients at high risk of thromboembolic events, one dose of 1 g TXA throughout surgery may be preferred. However, higher-quality RCT is needed to explore the optimal protocol dose to recommend the widespread use of TXA in total joint arthroplasty. Trial registration We conducted literature selection, eligibility criteria evaluation, data extraction and analysis on the research program registered in Prospero (CRD42023405387) on March 16, 2023. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13018-023-03929-9.