Lovenox for joint replacements

[Karlynn]

One of our good friends just had a hip replacement at the age of 50 (former Big 10 football player finally realizing all the abuse the sport heaped upon his body). They fully expected him to be on Coumadin for a while, but they sent him home with Lovenox injections instead. I had not heard of this, nor had our friends. Both of us have had parents and in-laws with joint replacments and all had been placed on Coumadin for a time after surgery.

Our friend said that they have him on Lovenox so he doesn't have to come in for blood tests. He finds the shots to be no big deal and only has one small bruise after a week of daily shots. He's a big guy, (about 280) so I would imagine he's on a fairly large dose.

So is Lovenox beginning to replace Coumadin for people who must be on short-term anticoagulation?

 

[Ross]

Honestly don't know. I know when I had mine replaced, they gave me heprin during my hospital stay, but nothing after discharge.

 

[Cris N]

I've talked with a couple of people recently who had a parent with a hip or knee replacement. Both were give prescriptions for Lovenox for, I think, about 2 weeks.

Cris

 

[Guest]

Lovenox actually works better but a lot of people don't want to be on shots. Until recently it has been difficult to get insurance approval for injections, too. One insurance comapny I know of charged $10 co-pay for warfarin and $250 for Lovenox. Probably the majority of orthopedic doctors don't even even want to bother with either one.

 

[Creed3]

Interesting

Interesting

My gyn had talked to me about this in the past. He felt that lovenox would work better than coumadin without having to come in for blood tests all the time. He told me the big reason it is not used more widely on chronic issues is because of the cost. Coumadin is much cheaper than Lovenox.

Take Care!
Gail