Background and objective: To assess the effectiveness in usual clinical practice of a preoperative autologous blood donation (PAD) program in total knee replacement (TKR).
Patients and method: An observational study was carried out in which 127 patients undergoing TKR were followed from the pre-anaesthetic visit to hospital discharge. Number of patients transfused and number of autologous and homologous blood units transfused in the PAD group and in the control group were registered and compared.
Results: 73 patients (57.5% of the sample) entered in the PAD program, of which 18 (24.7%) received their own blood. Four patients in the PAD group (5.5%) also received one unit of homologous blood in comparison to 18.5% in the control group (p = 0.025). In the PAD group, 5.6% of patients who received antifibrinolytic treatment (n = 36) and 43.2% of those who did not (n = 37) were transfused (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Due to the low transfusion rate in TKR, especially when antifibrinolytic agents were administered, the use of PAD must be reconsidered in this indication.