Total hip and knee arthroplasties are associated with considerable blood loss, and can conservatively range from 480 ml to 1.39 liters. Current research has focused on the prevention of allogeneic blood transfusion with the pre-operative donation and use of epoetin alfa. While the pre-operative use of epoetin alpha is associated with a substantial decrease in the rate of transfusion, there still warrants investigation into the conservation of blood volume after total joint arthroplasty.