The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 31, 482-490, Copyright © 1981 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Blood conservation techniques
JR Utley, WY Moores and DB Stephens
Increasing numbers of operations requiring cardiopulmonary bypass have been
accompanied by greater demands for blood resources. Improved techniques of
blood conservation have diminished the average blood requirements per
operation and have increased the percent of operations that can be done
without homologous blood. The conservation of blood can be planned
according to each patient's requirements. The techniques include
preoperative blood donation, intraoperative withdrawal of blood, reinfusion
of oxygenator blood, autotransfusion of blood after heparin neutralization,
autotransfusion after wound closure, and hemodilution. The availability of
techniques for filtration, centrifugation, and washing of blood have
improved the safety of autotransfusion. The techniques that gives the best
cost/benefit ratio appear to be preoperative withdrawal of blood,
reinfusion of centrifuged oxygenator contents, and reinfusion of filtered
blood from chest drainage.