66 adult patients scheduled to undergo elective hip revision surgery were randomly allocated to receive a liberal or restrictive allogeneic red blood cell transfusion strategy. The primary purpose of this trial was to compare the time required to complete the Timed Up and Go-test (TUG) between transfusion groups. Patients assigned to a liberal haemoglobin transfusion threshold of 8.9 g/dL took less time to complete the TUG than patients assigned to a restrictive transfusion threshold of 7.3 g/dL, but the clinical relevance is highly questionable. There were no differences regarding how soon after surgery patients could perform the TUG or walk 10 meters. Patients assigned to the liberal protocol experienced significantly more complications than patients assigned to the restrictive protocol.