Associations of Serum Lipids and Deep Venous Thrombosis Risk After Total Knee Arthroplasty in Patients With Primary Knee Osteoarthritis

Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the lower extremities is a common complication after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). This study aimed to investigate the potential associations between serum lipids and the risk of DVT after TKA in patients with primary knee osteoarthritis (OA). A total of 431 patients who received TKA caused by primary knee OA were randomly enrolled. According to the results of the color Doppler ultrasound of bilateral lower extremities deep veins on the third day postoperatively, patients were divided into DVT and non-DVT groups. Comparisons of preoperative serum levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein A1, and apolipoprotein B were then performed by the Student’s t test, χ² test, and multivariate logistic regression analysis. For females, DVT patients had a higher serum LDL-C level at baseline (P =.043) compared with non-DVT patients. A higher LDL-C value was significantly associated with an elevated DVT risk following TKA in female patients (P =.037). In female patients with primary knee OA, preoperative serum LDL-C level may have an association with DVT risk after TKA. The relatively small male sample size may limit the accuracy of the findings.