Questions/purposes. We determined (1) the relationship between time of perioperative clopidogrel administration and postoperative bleeding-related events after hip and knee arthroplasties and (2) patient characteristics or surgical factors that may predict these events. I am sorry for the delay in answering the question. The current recommendation is to take aspirin and Plavix for at LEAST one year after drug eluting stent placement. In general, surgery should be done promptly after hip fracture. However, when the patient has been taking clopidogrel (Plavix), the surgeon might be concerned about excessive perioperative bleeding. Plavix, Aspirin poison platelets for full 21 day life; Agents stopped 7 days before surgery allows 33% of platelets to regenerate (50,000) Adequate platelet aggregation returns within 5 days of stopping antiplatelet agents Introduction. Clopidogrel (Plavix ®) may influence patient safety during fracture surgery. Our study examines the incidence of complications for patients undergoing hemiarthroplasty on clopidogrel therapy. Hip replacement surgery is a procedure in which a doctor surgically removes a painful hip joint with arthritis and replaces it with an artificial joint often made from metal and plastic components. After knee replacement surgery, blood thinning medications should be given for at least 10 days. In contrast to hip replacement surgery, there has been no advantage in continuing these medications for a month. Three weeks after stopping Plavix for the surgery I was back in the cath lab and had a stint inserted. I do not come off Plavix for any reason now. I have 6 stints in my heart and one in my neck. Last week they would not remove my cataract because it was only 3 months since I had 2 stints inserted in my heart. Could not do it until six months had passed. I had open heart in 2004. Clopidogrel bisulfate (Plavix ®) is an antiplatelet agent that is used in the secondary prevention of ischaemic events in patients with ischaemic heart disease or peripheral vascular disease that are intolerant of aspirin, or in those who require additional antiplatelet therapy in combination with aspirin.