Incidence of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in closed foot and ankle fractures treated with conservative versus surgical management: A nationwide analysis

Objectives: Though there is extensive research on recovery and outcomes of proximal joint fractures, such as hip and knee, there is a paucity of such research in foot and ankle fractures and a lack of uniform data on the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE). This is a retrospective cohort study that seeks to investigate the incidence of VTE following surgically versus conservatively treated foot and ankle fractures METHODS: This study included all adult-patient hospitalizations with International Classification of Disease 10th Revision diagnosis codes related to closed foot and ankle fractures as a primary diagnosis in the National Inpatient Sample, an administrative database part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, for a total of 209,595 cases. Multivariate binary logistic regression was performed to determine the effect of age, gender, past medical history of venous thromboembolism (PMHVTE), Charlson Comorbidity Index, race, surgery, and transfusion of red cell products on the incidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE).

Results: Our study found an overall incidence of DVT and PE to be 0.4 % and 0.3 %, respectively, following foot or ankle fracture. Conservative management was found to have an increased relative risk of DVT and PE of 2.02 and 1.15, respectively. This difference persisted on performing inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW) analysis to account for confounders. PMHVTE and requirement of blood transfusion was associated with an increased odds ratio (OR) of 3.41 and 3.217, respectively. Cases identified as Black and Asian/Pacific Islander also had an increased OR of DVT.

Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate that surgical management of foot and ankle fractures is associated with a lower relative risk of VTE compared to medical management. PMHVTE and transfusion of red cell products increase the odds of VTE following either form of intervention.