BACKGROUND: Unilateral total knee replacement (TKR) can result in a substantial blood loss and 30-50% of these patients receive allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT), this transfusion rate may be even higher among anaemic patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We assessed the requirements for ABT in 156 consecutive patients undergoing surgery for primary TKR, who received iron ferrous sulphate (256 mg\/day; 80 mg of Fe(2+)), vitamin C (1000 mg\/day) and folic acid (5mg\/day) during the 30-45 days preceding surgery, and who were transfused if Hb <80 g\/L and\/or clinical signs\/symptoms of acute anaemia\/hypoxemia (Group 2). A previous series of 156 TKR patients serves as a control group (Group 1). RESULTS: Compared to those in Group 1, patients in Group 2 presented a lower transfusion rate (5.8% vs. 32%, for Group 2 and Group 1, respectively; p<0.01), and a lower transfusion index (1.78+\/-0.44 vs. 2.22+\/-0.65 units per transfused patient, respectively; p<0.05). After patient's stratification according to a preoperative Hb above or below 130 g\/L, the differences in transfusion rate remained significant, although 19% of patients from Group 2 still needed ABT if their preoperative Hb <130 g\/L. CONCLUSION: This protocol seems to be effective for avoiding ABT in non-anaemic TKR patients, whereas for anaemic patients another blood saving strategy, such us preoperative erythropoietin administration or postoperative blood salvage, should be added to further increase its effectiveness\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial: Int J Surg Fecha: 01\/04\/2007 Cuenca J, Garcia-Erce JA, Martinez F, Cardona R, Perez-Serrano L, Munoz M. Acceso al<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":816,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awge.doctime.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}