Polycythemia in hysterectomy surgical patient

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Med-Surg.

Hello,

I am currently doing a case study on a surgical patient having a hysterectomy. She has been diagnosed with menorrhagia (heavy and painful menstrual periods), and dysmenorrhea. U/S shows a fibroid uterus. She is having an abdominal hysterectomy leaving her ovaries in tact.

I have been trying to figure out the lab results with this patient. My text book says that normal Hgb ranges are 12-15 g/dL... this patient has a hgb of 84... I have looked everywhere and all i can think of, is that this patient has been losing a lot of blood during her menstrual period. (they had her on ferrous sulphate for her anemia, but continues to bleed). Due to the decreased blood content, I would suspect that the hgb levels would be low?.. not high?

I am confused... and I have no idea how to interpret this information.

All responses are welcome! :)

Specializes in Med-Surg.

i have no idea what possessed me to write polycythemia.. i meant high Hgb levels :)

Are you sure that it's not 8.4? that would make more sense. It should be lower with the heavy periods.

Specializes in Med-Surg.

it is definetly 84...

I started thinking about dehydration.. i see there is a question about why they would initiate lactated ringers.. which makes me think of dehydration... if a pt was dehyrated could labs show hgb as a false high perhaps?

Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

It's a typo. A patient with a Hgb of 84 would have bood so think that it would not flow thru the circulatory system.

Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

yeah its 8.4. The lab and your textbook are using 2 reference range systems. Check the system that your lab uses.

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