John A. Skinner. Received: 29 October 2006 /Revised: 20 December 2006 ... e-mail: john.skinner@ucl.ac.uk. C. G. Walker. Department of Engineering Science, ...
International Orthopaedics (SICOT) (2008) 32:325–329 DOI 10.1007/s00264-007-0330-0
ORIGINAL PAPER
Attitudes to blood transfusion post arthroplasty surgery in the United Kingdom: A national survey Simon W. Young & Daniel J. Marsh & Mohammed A. Akhavani & Cameron G. Walker & John A. Skinner
Received: 29 October 2006 / Revised: 20 December 2006 / Accepted: 22 December 2006 / Published online: 30 March 2007 # Springer-Verlag 2007
Abstract Five hundred orthopaedic surgeons and 336 anaesthetists were surveyed to assess current UK attitudes towards transfusion practice following arthroplasty surgery. Seventy-two percent of surgeons and 73% of anaesthetists responded to the survey. In an uncomplicated patient following total hip arthroplasty, 53.2% of surgeons and 63.1% of anaesthetists would transfuse at or below a haemoglobin (Hb) level of 8 g/dL. Surgeons tended to be more aggressive in their attitudes, with a mean transfusion threshold of 8.3 g/dL compared to 7.9 g/dL for anaesthetists (p
