The Effects of Preoperatively Administering Parenteral Iron Sucrose in Patients Who Are Undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty

Bae, Ki Cheor; Cho, Chul Hyun; Lee, Kyung Jae; Lee, Sung Yun

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of preoperative parenteral iron sucrose therapy in patients with postoperative anemia following total knee arthroplasty.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed 30 patients who had postoperative anemia and who had undergone total knee arthroplasty from March 2008 to November 2008. Those patients agreed on treatment with preoperative parenteral iron sucrose therapy. The other 30 patients without iron sucrose administration were selected as a control group from January 2007 to February 2008. In this study, age, gender, the preoperative and postoperative values of hemoglobin, the operation time, the amount of bleeding, the amount of transfusion, the frequency of transfusion, postoperative infection and the length of the hospital stay were evaluated and statistically compared. Postoperative complications were also assessed.
RESULTS
Ant complications due to the administration of iron sucrose were not observed. At 48 hours postoperatively, the mean hemoglobin of iron sucrose administration group was 9.4 g/dL and that of the control group was 8.7 g/dL (p=0.008). Homogenous transfusion was done for 17 cases in the iron sucrose administration group and for 22 cases in the non-iron sucrose administration group, but among these groups, the results were statistically insignificant. The amount of homogenous transfusion for each patient who underwent iron sucrose administration is 1.3 units and this was 1.7 units for each patient who underwent non-iron sucrose administration. No statistical differences were observed between the groups in this study.
CONCLUSION
Parenteral iron sucrose administration in patients following total knee arthroplasty was not efficacious for preventing immediate postoperative anemia.