Efficacy of Prolonged Distal Calf Compression as Part of a Multimodal DVT Protocol in Tourniquet-less Total Knee Arthroplasty: a Randomized Clinical Trial in 100 Patients

In recent years there has been significant progress towards more effective and practical thromboprophylaxis in joint replacement surgeries. Since Aspirin 325mg twice daily has been recently included as a nationally approved venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis in the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) protocols for low risk total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients, it is necessary to optimize multimodal prophylaxis methods. These include reduced tourniquet time, early mobilization, and mechanical compression devices (MCDs). MCDs are commonly used as part of the in-hospital VTE prophylaxis measures; however, it has not been demonstrated in clinical trials that optimal prophylaxis methods would be enhanced by prolonged use of a MCD after discharge. In order to achieve this, a potentially valuable solution has recently been made available to the outpatient population. The Cothera VPulse(tm) is a MCD that combines rapid intermittent sequential compression with cold therapy. It is designed for single patient use in the home and includes technology to track patient compliance. The purpose of this study is to examine if there is a difference in DVT occurrence over 3 weeks after tourniquet-less TKA and multimodal prophylaxis with or without extended MCD use in a cooling device/MCD system.