Is Intraoperative Blood Cell Salvage Effective in Hip Surgery?

Objective  The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of blood cell salvage (CS) as a method of reducing allogeneic blood transfusion in patients submitted to transtrochanteric femoral and hip surgeries due to injury. Methods  Prospective cohort of 38 patients from a school hospital submitted to hip or trochanteric surgeries and divided into two groups from August 2015 to February 2017. Patients with any malignancy or infectious condition were excluded from the study. Cell savage group (19 patients) received autologous blood using cell saver, whereas control group (19 patients) received just allogeneic blood, if needed. Red blood cell parameters, blood transfusion requirements, and clinical and surgical characteristics, such as age, gender, ASA scale and type of surgery, were compared both preoperatively and postoperatively. Data was processed in SPSS 20.0. Results  There were no differences in the clinical parameters studied (age, gender and ASA scale). Red blood cell parameters on the first day postoperative were higher in the cell savage group ( p  < 0.05). No significant reduction of intraoperative and postoperative allogeneic blood transfusion requirements was found. Conclusion  This study found that CS was not effective in reducing intraoperative and postoperative allogeneic blood transfusion requirements in patients submitted to transtrochanteric femoral and hip surgery.