Blood loss and haematological consequences related to nasal surgery.

A prospective study was carried out to compare blood loss from various types of nasal surgery, to investigate how accurately this loss was estimated during surgery and to find out how soon any losses were replenished. Blood loss during surgery was estimated, and by serial blood tests actual blood loss and continuing changes in haematological parameters were recorded. It was found that blood loss was highest when a nasal polypectomy and submucous resection were performed together and over the whole range of nasal surgery studied the actual blood loss was more than double the estimate during surgery. Although the blood volume recovers soon after surgery it was found that even after 6 weeks many patients had still not made up their loss of haemoglobin.