Hemagglutination of preoperative blood donation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

We gave preoperative blood transfusions to 37 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 35 patients with osteoarthritis (OA), including some whose baseline hemoglobin level was less than 10 g/dl. Transfusion packs can preserve whole blood containing citrate phosphate dextrose (CPD) for 3 weeks. The baseline hemoglobin level of RA cases was 10.