Bleeding during transurethral prostatectomy. Is preoperative blood request necessary?

Transurethral resection of the prostate is nowadays the totally dominating operation for prostatic hyperplasia. The most common and also most discussed complication is per- and postoperative bleeding. To find out how often there is need for blood transfusion in connection with transurethral prostatectomy we analyzed all such operations performed during 1981 at the Urological clinic, Danderyd Hospital. The study showed that transfusion was given in 13% of the operations. The amount of given blood was generally small. The conclusion is that there is no need for routine request of blood preoperatively at transurethral resections of the prostate.