Abstract

The study aimed to determine the impact of implementing a patient blood management (PBM) policy during total hip arthroplasty. Firstly, the authors collected retrospective data concerning blood consumption for all patients (N = 577) having undergone total hip arthroplasty between 2009 and 2011, other than for post-traumatic indications. During this period, no coherent blood management rules were in place. Based on the results obtained, a blood transfusion strategy called Patient Blood Management (PBM) was defined and implemented in our department for this type of surgical procedure beginning 2012. The impact of PBM was then analyzed after a 6-month prospective study during 2013/2014 on a cohort of 123 patients. These prospective data demonstrate that PBM significantly improved patient care and reduced the need for allogeneic labile blood transfusions.