Efficacy of tranexamic acid supplemented with local infiltration analgesia in reducing blood loss in patients undergoing unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of tranexamic acid supplemented with local infiltration analgesia in reducing blood loss in patients undergoing unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA). Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on 176 individuals with a mean age of 64.27 (standard deviation [SD], 7.16) years undergoing unicompartmental cemented knee arthroplasty. The patients were divided into three groups according to patient blood management: I, patients without additional bleeding protocol (control group); II, patients intravenously administered tranexamic acid (TXA) (TXA group); and III, patients with exact TXA protocol combined with intraoperative local infiltration analgesia (LIA) (TXA + LIA group). Blood loss was measured as a substitute for blood loss by the maximal haemoglobin (Hb) drop compared with the preoperative Hb level. Results: The mean Hb drops for the control, TXA, and TXA + LIA groups were 2.24 (16.0%), 2.14 (15.4%), and 1.81 (12.6%) g/dl, respectively. The mean hospitalisation days for patients in the control, TXA, and TXA + LIA groups were 5.91 (SD, 1.24), 5.16 (SD, 0.95), and 4.51 (SD, 0.71) days, respectively. Conclusions: The combination of TXA with LIA reduces perioperative blood loss for patients after UKA.