Gender Differences do not Influence the Blood Coagulopathy in Patients Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Retrospective Thromboelastography Analysis

OBJECTIVE: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is one of the severe complications after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Gender has been considered to influence the incidence of the thrombosis formation in TKA patients. However, it remains controversial which gender would be more prone to form thrombosis. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of gender differences on coagulation status after TKA via the thromboelastography (TEG). METHODS: A total of 57 male patients who underwent primary TKA from September 2015 to January 2021 were included in this study. According to the matching principle of age, body mass index (BMI), and anticoagulation treatment, 60 female patients were selected. The conventional coagulation tests, routine blood tests, and thromboelastography were conducted before the operation, 1 day and 7 days after the operation. In addition, Doppler ultrasound was also performed 1 day before the operation and at the 7 days after the operation. The parameters of conventional coagulation tests, routine blood tests, and thromboelastography were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the blood transfusion rate, the incidence of DVT during the perioperative period, D-dimer (D-D), fibrin degradation products (FDP), hemoglobin (HB), hematocrit (HCT), prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), and C-reactive protein (CRP) at any corresponding time point between the male group and the female group (P > .05). There were no significant differences in neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) preoperatively; however, there were significant differences in NLR 1 day after the surgery and 7 days after the surgery between the two groups (P < .05). There were significant differences in reaction time (R) and α angle 1 day after the surgery between the two groups (P < .05), but there were no significant differences in other TEG indexes at any corresponding time point between the two groups (P > .05). Binary logistic regression analysis demonstrated that gender, age, BMI, tourniquet application time were not independent predictors (P > .05). CONCLUSION: Gender differences have no significant influence in TKA patients with regard to conventional coagulation tests and thromboelastography.