The effect of intra-articular epinephrine lavage on blood loss following total knee arthroplasty.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of intra-articular epinephrine lavage on blood loss following total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Our retrospective study involved 189 patients who had primary cemented TKA by 1 of 2 surgeons. Surgeon 1 performed 41 procedures without and 53 with the epinephrine lavage. Surgeon 2 performed 41 procedures without and 54 with the epinephrine lavage. We compared calculated blood loss (CBL) for the patients in all 4 groups. We found no significant differences in CBL among the patients in the 4 patient groups. Our results show that an intra-articular epinephrine lavage does not affect blood loss after TKA.