Computer-assisted surgery can reduce blood loss after total knee arthroplasty

The aim of this study was to compare blood loss and transfusion requirements in patients undergoing computer-assisted total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and patients operated with conventional instrumentation with intra-medullar guides. A prospective randomized study of 87 patients undergoing a TKA assigned to conventional technique (n = 44) or computer-assisted surgery (n = 43) was conducted. All patients were operated by the same surgeon and in all cases a cemented arthroplasty and deep recovery drainage were used. Both groups were comparable in all variables except for duration of ischemia, which was 13.7 min higher in the computer-assisted group. Blood loss due to drainage was higher in the conventional technique group (613 vs. 447 ml), as was the number of patients in which blood from the blood recovery system was reinfused (53 vs. 23%). Those patients undergoing computer-assisted surgery experienced less bleeding than those operated with the conventional technique. However, hemoglobin drop and allogenic transfusion rate were not statistically different in both groups.