HAMILTON, Canada, July 9,
2010 /PRNewswire/ — An ultra-low-molecular-weight heparin
called semuloparin has been found to reduce the incidence of venous
thromboembolism in orthopedic surgery patients in a large clinical
program being led by a steering committee chaired by McMaster University professor Dr. Alexander Turpie.
The follow-up analysis of three recently completed international
clinical studies on short-term venous thromboembolism (VTE)
protective medicine in patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery
demonstrated that the ultra-low-molecular-weight heparin
semuloparin reduced the incidence of VTE and all-cause death by 25
per cent compared to the commonly used therapy drug enoxaparin (a
low-molecular-weight heparin).
Patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery are at increased
risk of developing a dangerous blood clot that blocks veins, which
is known as venous thromboembolism (VTE). Without treatment, the
incidence of confirmed deep-vein thrombosis, blood clots within the
veins of the legs and pelvis, is up to 40 to 60 per cent following
major orthopedic surgery.
“This is a potential advance in orthopedic surgery compared to
current VTE prophylaxis options,” said Turpie, a professor of
medicine at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster.
The favourable benefit-to-risk profile observed with semuloparin
compared to enoxaparin in the classic major orthopedic surgery
model supports the further evaluation of semuloparin as VTE
preventative therapy in other areas including oncology, as VTE is a
known complication in patients with cancer. Patients suffering from
cancer have a four to seven fold grea
‘/>”/>