Effectiveness and safety of rivaroxaban for the prevention of thrombosis following total hip or knee replacement: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Prophylactic anticoagulant therapy is recommended to reduce the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after total hip or knee arthroplasty, and has become the standard of care. Rivaroxaban is a novel oral medication that directly inhibits factor Xa for the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic conditions. METHOD: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed to determine the efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) surgery. We reviewed several databases including PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase and the US trial registry to detect appropriate RCTs for our meta-analysis. The primary efficacy outcome of this meta-analysis was the combination of any deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), non-fatal pulmonary embolism (PE), and death from any cause. The main safety outcome was bleeding events which included significant bleeding events, clinically relevant insignificant bleeding events, or minor events. Other end points were the number of patients who received blood transfusion the volume of transfused whole blood or red blood cells, and the volume of postoperative drainage. RESULT: Thirteen RCTs were included in this meta-analysis. This meta-analysis showed that the overall rate of VTE events, DVT, PE, and death were 1%, 6%, < 1% and < 1%, respectively, for patients receiving treatment with rivaroxaban after THA and TKA surgery. The subgroup analysis demonstrated rivaroxaban had more superior effects in THA patients. The pooled analysis of bleeding events showed that the overall rate of major bleeding events, overt bleeding events associated with fall in Hb of > 2 g/DL, clinically overt bleeding events leading to transfusion of > 2 units of blood, clinically overt bleeding events leading to further surgeries, and non-major bleeding events were < 1%, < 1%, < 1%, < 1%, and 3%, respectively. CONCLUSION: This is the first systematic review of the literature providing incidence of efficacy and safety outcomes for thromboprophylaxis in THA and TKA patients. Moreover, this meta-analysis showed that rivaroxaban had more superior effect in THA patients.