The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 77, Issue 7 998-1002, Copyright © 1995 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Effect of ketorolac tromethamine on bleeding and on requirements for analgesia after total knee arthroplasty
RJ Fragen, SD Stulberg, R Wixson, S Glisson and E Librojo
Department of Anesthesia, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.
The effect of ketorolac tromethamine, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drug, on postoperative blood loss and on the requirement for morphine was
assessed after total knee arthroplasty, an operation in which blood loss is
mainly measured rather than estimated. The purpose of this prospective,
randomized, double-blind clinical trial was to determine whether
administration of ketorolac in the perioperative period would increase
bleeding related to the operation. Fifty-nine patients who had a total knee
arthroplasty received either thirty milligrams of ketorolac or a placebo
consisting of saline solution, intravenously, every six hours, in four
doses. The first dose was administered about an hour before the end of the
operation. Blood loss and use of morphine for pain control were measured
for the first twenty-four hours postoperatively. The per cent change in the
hematocrit and the amount of transfused blood were also recorded. The
patients who received ketorolac used 27 per cent less morphine than those
who received the placebo (40.0 +/- 23.4 milligrams compared with 55.1 +/-
23.5 milligrams [mean and standard deviation]); this difference was
significant (p < 0.05). On the first day after the operation, the
hematocrit decreased from 0.364 +/- 0.043 preoperatively to 0.278 +/- 0.032
in the patients who received ketorolac and from 0.363 +/- 0.046 to 0.298
+/- 0.030 in the patients who received the placebo. The 6 per cent greater
decrease in the group that received ketorolac was significant (p < 0.05)
but not clinically important.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)