The records of ninety-eight patients (100 hips) who had revision total
hip arthroplasty were reviewed to evaluate the efficacy of intraoperative
autologous transfusion in reducing homologous blood-transfusion
requirements. In the fifty hips in the study group, a mean of 685
milliliters of autologous blood, or 47 per cent of the estimated loss of
blood, was transfused intraoperatively. During the entire course of
hospitalization, the mean of the total homologous blood-transfusion
requirements was 795 milliliters in thirty-nine study-group patients,
compared with 1160 milliliters in forty-six control-group patients who did
not have autologous transfusion. This difference was statistically
significant (p less than 0.029). Eleven patients in the study group and
four patients in the control group did not receive homologous blood.
Over-all, the use of intraoperative autologous transfusion was directly
responsible for a 42 per cent reduction in the total amount of homologous
blood that was transfused.