Blood Management in Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty
Cushner, Fred D. MD; Foley, Iris BS; Kessler, Debra RN, MS; Scuderi, Giles MD; Scott, W. Norman MDKnee
Much attention has been focused on blood management issues in orthopaedic surgery in recent years, but blood management in patients having revision total knee arthroplasty is not well-established. Hematologic values and transfusion records of 100 patients (52 women, 48 men; mean age, 65 years) who had aseptic revision total knee arthroplasty at the authors’ institution were evaluated retrospectively. Two- or three-component revisions comprised 66% of the procedures, and 58 patients participated in a preoperative autologous donation program. The mean preoperative hemoglobin level was 12.1 g/dL in the women and 14.1 g/dL in the men, but the men experienced a greater decrease in hemoglobin level (mean largest decrease, 4.2 g/dL versus 3.1 g/dL), possibly caused by the higher allogeneic transfusion rate in women (19.2%) versus men (4.2%). Patient age did not influence hemoglobin level or transfusion rates. Patients who participated in a preoperative autologous donation program had significantly higher hemoglobin levels before donation (14.4 g/dL versus 13.3 g/dL for patients who did not participate in a program) but comparable hemoglobin levels after predonation (12.9 g/dL). Patients with preoperative hemoglobin levels less than 13 g/dL were significantly more likely to have a transfusion. Symptom-based transfusion strategies and blood management approaches such as epoetin alfa that elevate preoperative hemoglobin level therefore may be beneficial in patients having revision total knee arthroplasty.
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