BACKGROUND
Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been widely used to reduce blood loss and maintain postoperative hemoglobin level in elective orthopedic surgeries, but its role in orthopedic trauma surgery hasn’t been well defined. The aim of this study was to assess the role of TXA in reducing postoperative blood loss in patients undergoing Dynamic hip screw fixation for intertrochanteric fractures.
METHODS
This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Orthopedics, B&B Hospital, Gwarko, Lalitpur, Nepal, from September 2023 to July 2024. Twenty-two patients with intertrochanteric fracture underwent dynamic hip screw fixation where 8 patients received TXA (Group A) and 14 patients didn’t receive TXA (Group B). The analysis of different variables was done according to standard statistical analysis. For all analyses, the level of significance was set at 0.05.
RESULTS
There was no significant difference between the groups regarding age, gender, mechanism of injury, limb involvement, and Boyd and Griffin classification. The postoperative blood loss was less in Group A (116.88± 118.29ml) than in Group B (160.71± 77.75ml) (p=0.095). The postoperative hemoglobin and packed cell volume (PCV) were 10.08± 1.07 gm/dl and 31.20± 3.75 in group A and 9.25± 1.63 gm/dl and 26.50± 4.02 in group B, respectively (p=0.376, 0.133). Postoperatively, 75% of cases didn’t require blood transfusion in group A and 50% in group B.
CONCLUSION
This study indicated that the use of TXA relatively decreased postoperative blood loss and maintained higher levels of hemoglobin and PCV when compared to patients who did not receive TXA.
KEYWORDS
dynamic hip screw, intertrochanteric fracture; tranexamic acid