A study from Rush University Medical Center – reported at the MAOA annual meeting – also showed a reduction in the rate of complications with neuraxial versus general anesthesia.
In what is believed to be the largest study of its kind, Dr. Brett Levine and his colleagues from Rush University Medical Center found that the type of anesthesia a patient receives for THA has an impact on whether he or she will require a blood transfusion after the procedure.
They were also less likely to experience complications such as deep infection and pneumonia.
For the study – reported last week at the annual meeting of the Mid-America Orthopaedic Association (MAOA) – researchers from Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, evaluated data from the National Surgical Quality Improvement (NSQIP) Database, which includes prospectively collected data on perioperative laboratory, co-morbidity, and postoperative complications.
The objective was to compare neuraxial versus general anesthesia with regard to risk for blood transfusion and complications in more than 29,000 patients who underwent primary THAs from 2005 to 2012.
"A growing body of literature has demonstrated an increased rate of complications with blood transfusions following primary total hip arthroplasty," said Brett R. Levine, MD, senior author of the study. "While previous studies have demonstrated a decreased rate of complications with neuraxial anesthesia, these studies have included small numbers of patients undergoing heterogeneous orthopaedic procedures."
Source: ICJR