Tranexamic acid is beneficial for blood management of high tibial osteotomy: a randomized controlled study

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether TXA can effectively reduce blood loss after HTO and related complications and to evaluate its safety. From March 2016 to March 2018, 100 patients who underwent medial opening wedge HTO in the Department of Orthopedics, the second affiliated hospital of xi’an jiaotong university, with an average age of 52.8 ± 3.2 years, were randomly divided into the TXA group (using intravenous TXA) and the control group (using the same amount of normal saline), with 50 patients in each group. The postoperative wound drainage volume, decrease in hemoglobin and hematocrit value, total blood loss, wound healing, blood transfusion, deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) were compared between the two groups. The drainage volume on the first postoperative day and the total drainage volume of the TXA group were significantly lower compared with those of the control group (145.7 vs 264.5 ml, 282.3 vs 413.2 ml, P   0.05). There was no symptomatic DVT or PE in either of the groups. Intravenous TXA can effectively and safely reduce blood loss and bleeding-related complications after HTO and was beneficial for the blood management of HTO.