We evaluated the bleeding volume after surgery for trochanteric fractures of the femur in patients treated with antiplatelet agents according to surgical timing.

We selected 20 patients who had trochanteric fractures of the femur treated with antiplatelet agents from January 2009 to June 2010. Group I included 9 patients who discontinued antiplatelet medication and had delayed operations at an average of 6.5 days and Group II included 11 patients who underwent early operations within 24 hours. Group I included 2 males and 7 females; their average age was 77.8 years (range 59~86). Group II included 4 males and 7 females, with an average age of 73.5 years (range 61~84). We compared the two groups' volume of intraoperative bleeding, the preoperative and postoperative hemoglobin levels and the volume of postoperative transfusion. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis.

The volume of intraoperative bleeding was 88 ml in group I and 106 ml in group II (p>0.01). The difference in the hemoglobin was a decrease of 2.4 mg% in group I and a decrease of 2.2 mg% in group II (p>0.01). The volume of postoperative transfusion was 0.6 pints in group I and 1 pint in group II (p>0.01).

We found a similar bleeding volume regardless of operative timing after surgery for trochanteric fractures of the femur in patients treated with antiplatelet agents.