Background:

Each year it is estimated in the United States an approximate of 8 million fractures; 5 to 10% develop delayed union or absence of periosteal new bone. There are several factors that can cause delay in fracture healing, among the well known, is the use of prophylactic antithrombotic therapy for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT appears in 40 to 60% of the patients undergoing orthopedic surgery without prophylactic antithrombotic therapy. The goal of this study was to assess whether there is a difference in time of bone healing in lower limb fractures (femur and tibia) comparing rivaroxaban to enoxaparin as the prophylactic antithrombotic management.

Material and methods:

We present a retrospective observational and analytic study in a sample of cases. It is a cross-sectional study with patient data from the database of the American British Cowdray (ABC) Medical Center. We included patients with femur and tibia fractures under antithrombotic prophylactic management with rivaroxaban or enoxaparin during the period of January 2011 to December 2012. Our sample included 32 patients separated into two groups. Student’s t-test was used for comparing parametric variables and the Mann-Whitney U test for nonparametric variables. Linear regression model was preformed considering the variables related to the time it took the fracture to heal.

Results:

All fractures consolidated in a time of 13 and 14 weeks for rivaroxaban and enoxaparin respectively (p = 0.67).

Discussion:

We found no difference in bone healing time for lower limb fractures in patients receiving antithrombotic prophylaxis treatment comparing rivaroxaban with enoxaparin.