Statin use after surgery linked to a relative risk of revision of 0.34 compared to no statin use
FRIDAY, May 28 (HealthDay News) -- The risk of revision after primary total hip arthroplasty is lower among those using statins than those not on statins, according to a study published in the May 1 issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
In an effort to estimate the relative risk of revision due to all causes and that due to specific causes according to postoperative statin use, Theis M. Thillemann, M.D., of the Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues identified 2,349 patients from the Danish Hip Arthroplasty Registry who underwent revision of a primary total hip replacement between 1996 and 2005, and matched them with 2,349 controls with a total hip replacement who had not had a revision.
The researchers found that statin use after surgery was associated with an adjusted relative risk of revision of 0.34 compared with no postoperative statin use. In addition, statin use was linked to a reduced risk of revision due to deep infection, aseptic loosening, dislocation, and periprosthetic fracture. However, the researchers found no difference between statin users and nonusers in risk of revision due to pain or implant failure.
"The use of statins was associated with a substantially lower revision risk following primary total hip arthroplasty," the authors write. "Statins, however, should not be prescribed to healthy patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty in order to improve the longevity of the replacement until further studies have confirmed our finding and the mechanisms for this association have been clarified."
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