The role of aspirin for thromboembolic disease in total joint arthroplasty.

Fatal PE is a real problem and cannot be minimized. However, it must be appropriately balanced to other perioperative risks. It appears that fatal PE, as reported in the recent literature, is the same no matter which chemoprophylactic agent is used, with a rate of approximately 0.1% to 0.2%. With the use of aspirin as chemoprophylaxis after TKA, we have demonstrated the risk of fatal PE to be 0.15%. Because of our experience, the current data in the literature, and the need to carefully balance risk, we continue to use aspirin as our prophylactic agent of choice.