A randomized, double-blind controlled trial of low-dose heparin combined
with sulfinpyrazone to prevent deep-vein thrombosis after operation on the
hip was carried out. In a group of seventy-three patients after
arthroplasty, postoperative thrombosis of the veins of the lower limbs
occurred in 51 per cent of the control patients and in 36 per cent of the
treated patients. In a fracture group of thirty patients, thrombosis
occurred in 75 per cent of the control patients and in 36 per cent of the
treated patients. These differences are of borderline statistical
significance in the fracture group and are of no statistical significance
in the arthroplasty group. However, a 36 per cent incidence of venous
thrombosis in the drug-treated patients is too high to justify
recommendation of the regimen tested without careful monitoring of patients
by tests designed to detect thrombosis. Then, appropriate anticoagulant
therapy can be instituted if necessary.