[Postoperative closed suction drainage following hip and knee aloarthroplasty: drain removal after 24 or after 48 hours?]

The use of closed-suction drainage systems after total hip and knee replacement is a common practice. It is believed that drainage reduces the haematomas and infection. The usual time to remove drains is 48 hours. Usefulness of the long time drainage of the haematomas and possible harmfulness of infection is still a subject of discussion. In this article, using our own operative material, we want to show the justification of the 48 hour duration of closed-suction drainage. The investigation was done on the patients with hip replacement (45 patients) and knee replacement (11 patients). The amount of blood in the drainage systems in the first 24 hours after the surgery and after 24 hours till the removal of drainage was observed. The results show that the amount of blood lost in the drainage system in the first 24 hours was on average 95.29%, and only 4.71% in the next 24 hours. This article supports the opinion that postoperative drainage has to be removed after 24 hours, i.e. the 48 hours-drainage seems not to be justified.