Perioperative epoetin alfa increases red blood cell mass and reduces exposure to transfusions: results of randomized clinical trials.

To avoid the inherent risk of complications associated with perioperative allogeneic transfusion, preoperative autologous blood donation (PAD) is frequently employed by patients undergoing major elective surgical procedures. However, many patients are unable to donate a sufficient quantity of blood prior to surgery. Recent studies have shown that epoetin alfa (Procrit; Ortho-Biotech, Raritan, NJ) effectively increases red blood cell (RBC) mass when administered preoperatively and decreases the requirement for allogeneic transfusion. These studies also demonstrated that patients with baseline hemoglobin levels ranging from 10 to 13 g/dL have the highest risk for requiring allogeneic transfusions and appear to achieve the greatest benefit from epoetin alfa treatment. We evaluated several dosing regimens and schedules for perioperative epoetin alfa administration. In our initial study, the comparative efficacy of three different epoetin alfa regimens was assessed by hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit, and absolute reticulocyte counts. In addition, we analyzed the effect of accelerated erythropoiesis on iron indices and individual RBC hemoglobin content. Our study demonstrated that epoetin alfa is safe and effective in increasing RBC mass; however, iron stores considered sufficient for basal erythropoiesis may not optimally support the accelerated RBC production associated with epoetin alfa therapy. In a subsequent randomized multicenter trial, we compared weekly epoetin alfa dosing to daily dosing in patients undergoing elective major orthopedic surgery. The results of this study indicated that administering epoetin alfa on a weekly schedule for several weeks prior to surgery may be at least as effective and more convenient than perioperative daily epoetin alfa dosing.