BLOOD SAVING PROGRAM - A MULTICENTER ITALIAN EXPERIENCE

To assess the causes of failure in a blood saving program and the cons equent need for homologous transfusions during major orthopedic surger y, data were collected from six orthopedic centers where an autotransf usion program was carried out from 1992-1994. The 1,576 (1,016 female and 560 male) patients studied (average age 63.6 +/- 10 years) were tr eated either for total hip prosthesis (1,144 pts) total knee prosthesi s (212 pts), plate and screw removal plus hip prosthesis (8 pts), hip revision (cup 48 pts, stem 10 pts, cup plus stem 146 pts) and total kn ee revision (8 pts). Ninety percent of patients did not undergo homolo gous transfusions, which was significantly connected to: male sex (8% versus 11.7% p=0.02), younger age (63.2 vs 66.9 years, p=0.0001), high er weight (male 76 vs 70.7 Kg. p = 0.003, female 65.6 vs 61.9 Kg. p = 0.0003); higher baseline Hb (13.9 vs 12.8 g/dl, p = 0.0041), shorter o peration time (110 vs 128 minutes, p = 0.0001); use of indobufen for a ntithromboembolic prophylaxis (indobufen 4.6% vs heparin calcium 15.2% vs low molecular weight heparin 9% p = 0.0001). On the contrary, the factors favoring homologous transfusions were: peripheral anesthesia ( spinal and epidural 15.3% vs general 9.3% vs integrated 9.8% p = 0.016 ), total hip or knee revision, fixation device removal before hip pros thesis, systemic hypertension and coronary heart disease.