Hemorrhage Risk Prescribed Arixtra

Arixtra (fondaparinux sodium) was the first selective Factor Xa inhibitor to be marketed. As with all anticoagulants, an important adverse event associated with Arixtra use is haemorrhage. Previous studies using clinical trial and observational data show no difference in the risk of haemorrhage in patients treated with Arixtra compared to (low molecular weight heparins) LMWHs. This study will assess the risk of haemorrhage in major orthopaedic surgery patients (hip fracture surgery and/or hip/knee replacement surgery) treated with either Arixtra or LMWH for thromboprophylaxis and will provide additional observational data from a European country to strengthen the comprehensive review of haemorrhage and the post-marketing safety of Arixtra. All patients age 18 years and older with a primary discharge diagnosis for hip fracture surgery and/or a hospitalization for hip and/or knee replacement surgery from the PHARMO RLS database in the Netherlands are eligible for participation. For study inclusion patients must receive either Arixtra or LMWH as initial in-hospital thromboprophylactic agent and have at least three months in the PHARMO RLS database before cohort entry date. Patients with a history of hospitalization for haemorrhage, renal failure or liver failure in the past 3 months will be excluded. Descriptive statistics, including gender, age, length of treatment, co-morbidities, concomitant medications, and other covariates will be calculated. Data for this study were obtained from different registers in the PHARMO medical record linkage system (PHARMO RLS) in the Netherlands. The PHARMO medical record linkage system is a population-based patient-centric data tracking system that includes high quality and complete information of patient demographics, drug dispensing, and hospital morbidity records of approximately 2.3 million community-dwelling inhabitants of 48 geo-demographic areas in the Netherlands. The PHARMO registers are linked on a patient level and contai