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Efficacy, safety and user‐friendliness of two devices for postoperative autologous shed red blood cell re‐infusion in elective orthopaedic surgery patients: a randomized pilot study
Author(s) -
SoOsman C.,
Nelissen R. G. H. H.,
Eikenboom H. C. J.,
Brand A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
transfusion medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1365-3148
pISSN - 0958-7578
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3148.2006.00705.x
Subject(s) - medicine , randomized controlled trial , autologous blood , adverse effect , coagulopathy , surgery , blood transfusion , anesthesia
summary To determine the safety, efficacy and user‐friendliness of two different postoperative autologous blood re‐infusion systems, an open, randomized, controlled study was performed. Eligible consecutive primary and revision total hip and knee replacement patients were randomized for one of the two systems or for a control group in which shed blood was not re‐infused. The nursing staff scored user‐friendliness. Patients were monitored after re‐infusion. In all three patient groups, a restrictive transfusion trigger was used. Sixty‐nine of 70 randomized patients were evaluated. Ease of use, efficacy and safety of both re‐infusion systems were comparable. There was no difference in allogeneic blood use between the groups. Thirty per cent of the patients re‐infused with autologous blood developed a mainly mild, febrile transfusion reaction. No other adverse reactions were seen. Signs of coagulopathy after re‐infusion were not found. In multivariate analysis, autologous re‐infusion was an independent factor associated with a shorter hospital stay. Both postoperative autologous blood re‐infusion systems were of equal efficacy and safety. The contribution of autologous wound blood re‐infusion to reduce allogeneic transfusions must be investigated in a larger study.