The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of dalteparin use on transfusion rates and blood loss in patients undergoing primary total joint arthroplasty at our center.

We prospectively studied the transfusion patterns of 1642 patients who underwent primary total hip or knee arthroplasty between January 2004 and December 2005 by five arthroplasty surgeons. The influence of daltaperin use, release of tourniquet in total knee arthroplasty, and the turnover of house staff were analyzed using SPSS V14.0 statistical software.

We identified seven hundred and three total hip and nine hundred and thirty-nine knee arthroplasty patients. The mean haemoglobin drop was statistically significant between 2004 and 2005 (p< 0.001). This was seen in both hip (p=0.014) and knee (p< 0.001) patients. Subgroup analysis of total knee arthroplasty revealed a significant difference in haemoglobin drop between surgeons who released the tourniquet prior to closure compared to release at the end of the case (p=0.005). In addition, there were significant monthly differences that corresponded with the turnover of house staff (p=0.039). Overall, no statistically significant increase in allogeneic transfusion rates was observed between years, months, and individual surgeons.

The use of dalteparin was found to be associated with a significantly increased haemoglobin drop in primary total joint replacement when compared to warfarin. However, the use of dalteparin was not associated with an increase in allogeneic transfusions at our center. The results also suggest that there may be an advantage to releasing the tourniquet and achieving hemostasis prior to closure in knee arthroplasty. Finally, the results emphasise the importance of educating new house staff on methods to reduce intra-operative blood loss and transfusion rates.