The Global Orthopaedic Registry (GLORY) offers insights into multinational practice patterns of venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis in orthopedic surgery, based on data from 15,020 patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty or primary total hip arthroplasty from 2001 to 2004. Registry data show that the first choice for in-hospital VTE prophylaxis was low-molecular-weight heparin. Multimodal prophylaxis was common. Warfarin was more widely used in the USA than elsewhere in the world. GLORY data suggest that real-world practice often fails to meet the standards for prophylaxis recommended in the American College of Chest Physicians evidence-based guidelines, particularly in the USA. However, many US orthopedic surgeons may follow other practice guidelines, causing an underestimation of prophylaxis us in this study. Warfarin in the USA often failed to achieve recommended target International Normalized Ratio (INR) values. This paper reviews the GLORY practice findings in light of the contemporary literature on best practices for VTE prophylaxis in orthopedic patients.

The Global Orthopaedic Registry (GLORY) has been designed to monitor a broad range of complications and outcomes that occur following total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). GLORY provides global 'real-world' data, in contrast to the data generated by the controlled conditions of clinical trials. The results to date show an overall incidence of both in-hospital and post-discharge complications of approximately 7% in THA patients and 8% in TKA patients. The most common in-hospital complications in THA patients are fractures (0.6%) and deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) (0.6%), whereas in TKA patients DVT (1.4%) and cardiac events (0.8%) are most common. The most common post-discharge complications in both THA and TKA patients are reoperation due to bleeding, wound necrosis, wound infection, or other causes; and DVT. Bleeding complications were less common than other adverse events in both groups (in-hospital rates of 0.48% and 0.83%, respectively). Functional outcomes improved after surgery in both groups, as expected. Younger patients and patients who had been discharged directly to their homes seemed to have the greatest improvement in functional outcome after surgery.

The previous articles in this supplement have recounted, in detail, a number of the findings of the Global Orthopaedic Registry (GLORY) and placed them within the context of current knowl-edge regarding anticoagulation in patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Furthermore, because of the multinational nature of GLORY, we have been able to provide a preliminary view of some of the geographical differences in orthopedic practices that occur.