Optimization of Preoperative Anemia in Lower Limb Joint Replacement Surgery: Assessing the Rates of Allogenic Blood Transfusion and Duration of Hospital Stay

BACKGROUND: Orthopaedic procedures such as total hip and total knee replacements carry a significant risk of postoperative anemia, necessitating allogenic blood transfusions (ABTs), and an increased hospital length of stay. AIM: Our aim was to investigate whether the implementation of a local protocol designed to detect and treat preoperative anemia resulted in reduced ABT rates and a shorter duration of length of hospital stay (LOS). METHODS: We retrospectively audited 683 patients undergoing primary hip and knee replacements. We collated data for all patients about hospital length of stay and blood transfusions received. Both descriptive statistics and univariate analysis were performed. RESULTS: Approximately 21.6% of the cohort within the study who were anemic at preoperative clinic had a significantly increased median LOS of 2 days (p
Source: Orthopaedic Nursing - Category: Nursing Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research