Thromboembolism in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty with epidural analgesia.

We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 381 consecutive patients who underwent primary unilateral or bilateral total knee arthroplasty with regional anesthesia between 1995 and 2002. All operations in this study were performed at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation by the senior author. Calf-high intermittent pneumatic compression stockings were used in all patients, and routine ultrasound examinations were performed at an average of 3 days after surgery. We compared the early postoperative rates of venous thromboembolism between patients with indwelling epidural catheters and no chemoprophylaxis and those with spinal anesthesia combined with low-molecular-weight heparin. We found no significant difference between the 2 groups.