Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a blood salvage system in primary total knee arthroplasty--a retrospective match-controlled chart review.

We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and cost effectiveness of the OrthoPAT blood salvage system (Haemonetics Corp., Braintree, MA) following total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Two-hundred-and-two patients who received the OrthoPAT system were matched to 202 controls. A second match was performed for subjects weighing <75 kg. For all matched subjects, no significant difference in allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT) rate was found between the control and study groups (p=0.55). In the subjects <75 kg, use of the OrthoPAT system almost halved the incidence of ABT; however, in this small population the result was not statistically significant (p=0.10). Blood management costs for study patients were significantly higher than those of the control group in both the total matched pairs and those <75 kg (p< 0.0001 and p= 0.05, respectively).