Affiliations: [a] Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Helios ENDO-Klinik Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany | [b] Department of Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany | [c] Department of Trauma Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Mustafa Citak, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Helios ENDO-Klinik Hamburg, Holstenstrasse 2, 22767 Hamburg, Germany. Tel.: +49 40 3197 1649; Fax: +49 40 3197 0; E-mail:mcitak@gmx.de
Abstract:
BACKGROUND:
The advent of international medical travel has resulted in many patients
travelling abroad to seek medical attention at foreign institutions.
However, it is not known whether long-haul flights further increase the risk
of VTE in patients who are to receive a joint replacement. OBJECTIVES:
We performed this retrospective cohort study to analyze if patients with
preoperative air travel with a flight time more than four hours are at
higher risk for VTE development following total knee or total hip
athroplasty (THA) compared to patients without preoperative travel. METHODS:
Between January 2007 and December 2012, 245 patients were treated with
either a primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) or total hip arthroplasty
(THA) with preoperative air travel with a flight time more than 4 hours at
our institution. One-hundred fifty five patients (n= 87 THA and n= 68 TKA) out
of 245 patients met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included
in this study. A total of 187 patients (n= 92 THA and n= 95 TKA) without bus,
air or car travel longer than 30 minutes met the inclusion and exclusion
criteria and were included in this study as controls. RESULTS:
Patients with preoperative air travel were not at higher risk for VTE
development compared to patients without preoperative air travel following
TKA (HR = 0.95; 95%CI = 0.14-6.52). Gender (HR = 0.41; 95%CI = 0.05-3.56) and
age (HR = 3.77; 95%CI = 0.63-22.37) did not influence the VTE development in
TKA patients. CONCLUSIONS:
Our study results show that preoperative air travel do not further increase
the risk of VTE after TKA and THA.
Keywords: Deep vein thrombosis, air travel, long-haul flight, total knee arthroplasty, total hip arthroplasty
