Anaemia and wound healing. A clinical observation in 38 patients

In a six year period, 38 patients who had an average packed cell volume of 17.9% (range 14-25%) were treated surgically and their anaemia was corrected with oral haematinics post-operatively. Twenty one of the patients had emergency while 17 had elective surgical procedures under spinal (N = 30), ketamine hydrochloride (N = 6) and local infiltrating (N = 2) anaesthesia. All the wounds healed by primary intention and no wound complication was observed after a mean follow-up period of three years. Headache following spinal anaesthesia occurred in 6 patients and was the only significant post-operative complication detected. We conclude that severe anaemia alone does not retard wound healing in man.