2014 15th EFORT Congress: A prospective randomised double blinded placebo-controlled trial studying efficacy and safety of intra-articular injection of tranexamic acid in unilateral total knee arthroplasty

53 patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty were randomized to receive an intra-articular injection of either tranexamic acid (TXA; 1000 mg/20 mL) or a saline solution to determine the clinical efficacy of TXA with respect to total blood loss, the requirement for blood transfusion and the incidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT). The results from this study indicated that the TXA group yielded significantly greater postoperative haemoglobin and hematocrit levels when compared to a placebo. Although the proportion of patients requiring a blood transfusion was lower in the TXA group, this between-group difference was not found to be statistically significant. There were no cases of DVT in any patient.