Little scientific evidence on blood loss and transfusion rates after short-stem hip arthroplasty exists. The hypothesis of this study was that the blood loss and transfusion rate is lower in short stems compared to straight stems.
We compared 124 patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty (THA) using a short-stem design (group 1) and 141 patients using a straight-stem design (group 2). All patients were operated on by the same surgeon, and both groups were similar in age, gender, affected side, body mass index, and ASA score.
The calculated blood loss was 1139 ml in group 1 and 1358 ml in group 2 (p < 0.001). The transfusion rate was 8% in group 1 and 15.6% in group 2 (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between groups 1 and 2 regarding complications and operation time (p > 0.05).
Compared to patients after straight stem THA, both blood loss and blood transfusion rates were lower in patients after short stem THA.