Polycythemia in hysterectomy surgical patient

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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! :)

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

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

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

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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?

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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.

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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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