In spring 1992 a blood conservation programme was established at Nordland Central Hospital with emphasis on indications for blood transfusion and intraoperative blood salvage (cell-saver). Medical records from all patients who underwent hip arthroplasty during the period 1 June 1991 to 28 February 1994 were examined. Mean transfusion of homologous SAGMAN-blood (bank blood) was substantially reduced during the period: for total prosthesis (n = 192) from 2.6 to 1.1 units per operation (p < 0.0001) and for hemiprosthesis (n = 66) from 3.1 to 0.9 units per operation (p = 0.0202). The percentage of patients in each of these two groups who did not receive blood transfusion at all increased from 18 to 61 in the first group (p < 0.0001) and from 24 to 65 (p = 0.0202) in the second. The substantial reduction of bank blood transfusion in this material conforms with current international transfusion guidelines. A particular benefit, considering the risk of transfusing contagious blood, is the marked increase in the number of patients who did not receive any blood product at all.