Blood management in orthopaedic surgery.

The need to provide the best possible care for patients, while balancing risk against benefit and respecting the patients' wishes, is the major reason to pursue blood management strategies. This is underscored by the decreasing supply of blood and its concomitant increasing cost. A philosophy of blood management is centered in the recognition of transfusion-associated risks and their avoidance through limited exposure to allogeneic blood and the use of appropriate alternatives.