Risk of transfusion eightfold higher in bilateral knee replacements: study
Post operative complications include pulmonary embolism, stroke, transfusion and readmission, the authors say.
The risk of pulmonary embolism, stroke and blood loss anaemia more than doubled in patients who underwent simultaneous bilateral knee replacement compared with those who had a unilateral procedure, a study shows.
In addition, the risk of transfusion was almost eight times greater in those who underwent a simultaneous bilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA) compared with those who had a single procedure, US researchers say.
Their analysis included around 21,000 patients who underwent simultaneous bilateral TKA and over 126,200 matched patients who underwent unilateral TKA.
Procedures were carried out from from 2015 to 2020, and patients were identified through the Premier Healthcare Database..
