# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
Orthopedic surgery is one of most blood-consuming surgical specialties since it is associated
with a significant preoperative hemorrhage requiring frequent allogeneic blood
transfusions. A special mention needs to be done to hip and knee arthroplasty, complex
rachis arthrodesis and tumor-pathology removal. The intervention on older and higher-risk
patients has raised the demand on allogeneic blood to such levels that even Blood Banks are
unable to attend. Besides the high cost, using allogeneic blood has its risks, such as
immunosuppression, patient’s wrong identification, transfusion reactions or the possibility
of infectious disease transmission. This imbalance between blood demand and availability,
together with the awareness about potential risks of blood transfusions and the continuous
advances both in technology and pharmaceutics, should lead us to extreme changes in
transfusion politics; developing a series of therapeutic measures to reduce blood transfusion
to minimum, leaving its use only when it is strictly necessary, especially in scheduled
surgery

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Llibres / Capítols de llibre (Cirurgia i Especialitats Medicoquirúrgiques)