GIRFT Best Practice Guide: Group and Save testing for primary hip and knee replacement
The BOA has contributed to and co-badged the latest GIRFT Best Practice Guide, ‘Group and Save testing for primary hip and knee’ providing additional guidance intended to address unwarranted variation in preoperative Group and Save (G&S) testing.
Where surgical procedures have a risk of intra- and post-operative haemorrhage, pre-emptive tests to enable rapid access to compatible blood transfusions (should they be required) are commonly undertaken. However, for many types of surgery the risk of needing transfusion is very low, and all hospitals have well-defined policies for provision of blood in an unexpected emergency. For those procedures where the need for transfusion is less likely but still conceivable, a Group and Save (G&S) test is taken to identify the blood type of the patient, which then allows easy sourcing of blood components when necessary. There are recommendations on how often G&S testing should be done and repeated; there can be unnecessary burden and even distress to patients if these standards are not followed.
The Guide is aimed at teams who are involved in the pre-operative assessment (POA) and treatment of patients undergoing primary hip and knee replacement and include:
- POA clinical and operational teams
- theatre booking and scheduling teams
- theatre and ward staff working within orthopaedic settings
- orthopaedic teams
- haematology and transfusion laboratory and clinical teams
- anaesthetists.