Based on study of more than 28,000 TJA patients, presurgical ABO blood group testing looks like an inexpensive way to identify patents at increased risk for symptomatic postoperative VTE.

Prophylaxis regimens can dramatically lower the chances of a patient developing venous thromboembolism (VTE), one of the most serious complications of total hip (THA) and knee arthroplasty (TKA).

The challenge lies in choosing and balancing the safety and efficacy of those regimens, because determining individual patient risk for VTE can be difficult.

Clinicians choose anticoagulants based on clinical thrombotic risk factors such as comorbidities, but often lack knowledge of a patient’s genetic background with regard to VTE because screening for heritable risk factors is expensive

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