Purpose: In this study, we administered erythropoietin preoperatively to patients who underwent open radical prostatectomy without transfusion to increase their hemoglobin levels and investigated the efficacy of this procedure.
Materials and methods: We evaluated 62 patients who underwent open radical prostatectomy performed by the same surgeon between June 2005 and January 2011. The 22 patients who refused transfusion were assigned to group 1; the patients who accepted transfusion were assigned to group 2. Before surgery, we administered erythropoietin beta to group 1 patients whose hemoglobin levels were <12 g/dL and retrospectively compared the clinical data of the two groups. We used the t-test and the chi-square test for statistical analysis.
Results: Mean preoperative hemoglobin levels in group 1 after erythropoietin administration (14.5 g/dL) were significantly higher than those in group 2 (13.59 g/dL, p=0.003). Moreover, the difference in the mean hemoglobin levels before and after surgery for group 1 patients (3.55 g/dL) significantly exceeded that for group 2 patients (2.08 g/dL, p=0.000). Additional analysis revealed no statistically significant differences in perioperative complications between the groups.
Conclusions: Preoperative erythropoietin administration increased the safety margin of hemoglobin levels, and this strategy worked sufficiently well in our experience.
Keywords: Blood transfusion; Bloodless medical and surgical procedures; Erythropoietin; Jehovah's witnesses; Prostatectomy.