Allogeneic Blood Transfusion Is a Significant Risk Factor for Surgical-Site Infection Following Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: A Meta-Analysis.
Blood loss occurs significantly more frequently during total hip and knee arthroplasty than among any other type of orthopedic operation, which can sometimes lead to requiring a blood transfusion. Although allogeneic blood transfusion has been identified as a risk factor for postoperative surgical-site infection following arthroplasty, results are inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic meta-analysis to investigate whether having an allogeneic blood transfusion significantly increases the risk for surgical-site infection, particularly after total hip and knee arthroplasty.



We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis using random-effect models. Using an electronic database search, we selected 6 studies that included data on 21,770 patients and among these studies compared the postoperative infection rate between an allogeneic blood-transfusion exposure group and a nonexposure group. We calculated the pooled odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the groups.



The prevalences of surgical-site infections in our pooled analyses were 2.88% and 1.74% for the transfusion and nontransfusion groups, respectively. The allogeneic blood transfusion group had a significantly higher frequency of surgical-site infections based on pooled analysis using a random-effect model (pooled odds ratio = 1.71, 95% confidence interval: 1.23-2.40, P = .002).



Allogeneic blood transfusion is a significant risk factor for increasing the surgical-site infection rate after total hip and knee arthroplasty.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Jeong Lae
JL
Kim
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Jong-Hoon
JH
Park
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Seung-Beom
SB
Han
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Il Youp
IY
Cho
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Ki-Mo
KM
Jang
D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000209:etiology*; D065227:Transfusion Reaction; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous / Q000009:adverse effects
allogeneic blood transfusion; meta-analysis; surgical-site infection; total hip arthroplasty; total knee arthroplasty