Evaluation of Clopidogrel Safety in Geriatric Patients with Hip Fracture: A Retrospective Study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the risk of bleeding in elderly patients undergoing early hip fracture surgery with/without clopidogrel administration. METHODS: This was a retrospective study, and patients over 65 years with fresh hip fracture were enrolled. For the patients taking clopidogrel, early surgical treatment was performed without 5–7 days waiting time. The patients were divided into groups according to their fracture type and the surgical method. Within each fracture/surgery group, the patients were further divided into subgroups according to whether they had clopidogrel administration. The patients' age, gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, hemoglobin level at admission, and the time from admission to surgery were compared in the different groups. The bleeding outcomes, such as intraoperative blood loss and blood transfusion status, as well as secondary outcomes, such as operation duration and length of hospital stay, were also compared in these groups. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in patients' baseline characteristics and outcomes, including intraoperative blood loss, blood transfusion rate, operation duration and length of hospital stay, between the clopidogrel‐administrated patients and the control patients. However, the percentage of patients taking general anesthesia was significantly higher in clopidogrel group than that in control group (P = 0.01). Similar intraoperative blood loss was found in the subgroups of hemi‐hip replacement, internal fixation for intertrochanteric fracture of the femur (fracture type A1‐2, short pin), and internal fixation of femoral neck fracture with cannulated nails. For the internal fixation of femoral neck fracture with cannulated nails, the blood loss is significantly less in both subgroups than that with other two surgical methods. Moreover, the total hip arthroplasty, with the highest bleeding risk among all the surgical methods involved, was rarely chosen to treat geriatric hip fracture in this study. CONCLUSION: This study indicated that compared with patients without clopidogrel administration, elderly patients with hip fractures who receive clopidogrel as long‐term anti‐platelet therapy are relatively safe for surgery in less than 5–7 days after discontinuation of clopidogrel.