title: Fever and autologous blood retransfusion after total knee arthroplasty: a prospective study of 40 autotransfusion events in 21 patients.
abstract: The commonest adverse reaction of autotransfusion of drain blood is an increase in temperature, probably due to a cytokine-mediated inflammatory reaction. We recorded body temperature in 21 patients operated on with a total knee prosthesis prospectively during the first 18 postoperative hours. The patients had been given an autotransfusion of autologous filtered drain blood (40 events) within the first 8-9 hours. They all had hypothermia at the end of operation, with a continuous increase in temperature during the first 12 hours whereafter the temperature slowly fell. No additional increase in temperature was seen during the first 2 hours after an autologous retransfusion. Autotransfusion of filtered drain blood within the first 8 postoperative hours after arthroplasty thus did not seem to cause an additional increase in temperature above that due to spontaneous recovery after postoperative hypothermia and surgical trauma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Umeå University Hospital, Sweden. tore.dalen@orthop.umu.se
authors.forename: Tore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dalén
authors.forename: Kjell G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: K Gunnar
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Engström
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee; D001804:Blood Transfusion, Autologous / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007036:Hypothermia, Induced; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies