The use of erythropoietin in the management of Jehovah's Witnesses who have revision total hip arthroplasty.
Five Jehovah's Witnesses (one man and four women) were managed with revision total hip arthroplasty. The average age of the patients at the time of the index operation was 66.4 years (range, fifty-eight to seventy-eight years). All of the patients received subcutaneous injections of recombinant human erythropoietin before the operation, at an initial dose of 100 international units per kilogram of body weight three times a week. The duration of preoperative treatment was determined by the hematocrit at the time of presentation. The hematocrit was monitored weekly, beginning with the second week of treatment, and the dose was adjusted accordingly until the time of the operation. Erythropoietin therapy was discontinued if the hematocrit exceeded 0.45 at any time. The hematocrit before the erythropoietin therapy was begun, at the time of admission to the hospital (one or two days preoperatively), immediately postoperatively, and at the time that the patient was discharged were recorded for this study. All five revision total hip arthroplasties were performed successfully without a blood transfusion. No patient had any complications associated with an excessive loss of blood or a low hematocrit. The average hematocrit was 0.395 (range, 0.317 to 0.447) before the erythropoietin therapy was begun and was 0.476 (range, 0.431 to 0.509) after treatment with erythropoietin and before the operation (that is, at the time of admission to the hospital). The average duration of erythropoietin therapy was twenty-six days preoperatively and 3.6 days postoperatively. The average hematocrit was 0.368 (range, 0.272 to 0.424) immediately after the operation and was 0.308 (range, 0.294 to 0.327) at the time of discharge from the hospital. No patient had evidence of deep venous thrombosis. This study illustrates that it is possible and apparently safe to optimize the hematocrit, by use of erythropoietin, in a patient who is scheduled for an operation. This may be particularly beneficial to a patient with anemia who has failure of a total hip arthroplasty. A relatively high hematocrit (0.45 to 0.50) preoperatively provides a relative margin of safety to a procedure that frequently involves a great deal of intraoperative blood loss. The use of erythropoietin preoperatively is particularly suited to joint replacements and revisions because of their elective nature and the moderately flexible timing associated with these procedures.