Predicting Blood Loss in Total Knee and Hip Arthroplasty

Marked blood loss during lower extremity total joint arthroplasties may lead to higher rates of transfusion, which may negatively affect surgical outcomes and yield greater complication rates. It is therefore ideal to identify factors that may increase the likelihood of blood loss, so they can be modified. From this review, it can be concluded that preoperative anemia, older age, multiple comorbidities, increased operative time, and use of postoperative anticoagulation may lead to higher blood loss and transfusion rates, although the influence of other factors remains controversial.