Use of the Greenfield filter to prevent fatal pulmonary embolism associated with total hip and knee arthroplasty.
We inserted a Greenfield filter prophylactically in forty-two of approximately 4,000 patients who were about to have a total hip or knee replacement, or both, and who were at high risk for pulmonary embolism (Group I). The filter was implanted postoperatively in twenty-four additional patients who had thromboembolic complications or in whom anticoagulation was contraindicated (Group II). None of the patients in Group I and only one in Group II had a fatal pulmonary embolism. Use of the Greenfield filter is a safe, easy, and effective method of preventing fatal pulmonary embolism in selected patients: those who are at exceptionally high risk for thromboembolism, as a method of preoperative prophylaxis; those who have had a thromboembolism and in whom therapeutic anticoagulation is contraindicated; and those who have complications secondary to therapeutic anticoagulation.
Vaughn
B K
BK
Saint Antony Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio.
Knezevich
S
S
Lombardi
A V
AV
Mallory
T H
TH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005374:Filtration / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D007595:Joint Prosthesis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014682:Vena Cava, Inferior