Eight of forty-one patients undergoing total hip replacement experienced
acute but not fatal renal failure postoperatively. All forty-one patients
received transfusions of frozen blood and albumin and their wounds were
irrigated with a bacitracin-neomycin-polymyxin solution. All subsequently
had some relative hypotension. None of a second, prospective group of
fifty-five patients who received the transfusion of albumin, but not frozen
blood or the bacitracin-neomycin-polymyxin irrigant, had renal failure. The
incidence of hypotension in this group was comparable to that in the first
group, yet no cases of renal failure were seen. We therefore recommend that
the combination of frozen blood and potentially nephrotoxic drugs be
avoided in patients undergoing total hip replacement.