title: Use of autologous blood in support of orthopaedic surgery using a hospital-based autologous donor programme.
abstract: The use of autologous blood in support of orthopaedic surgery has been assessed for 296 patients; 150 underwent hip arthroplasty, 69 underwent knee arthroplasty, 37 underwent spinal procedures and 40 underwent miscellaneous operations. Overall, 87% of patients received no allogeneic blood and 23% of the autologous blood collected was not used. For hip and knee arthroplasty, there appears to be an increased willingness to transfuse patients when autologous blood is available, and a decreased proportion of patients receiving more than 3 units for hip arthroplasty and 2 units for knee surgery, when compared with an audit of blood use when almost all blood used was allogeneic. Wastage of autologous blood in support of spinal surgery was 66%, prompting a review of ordering practices. Assessment of avoidance of allogeneic transfusion by the standard schedule of 3 units for hip arthroplasty and 2 units for knee arthroplasty appears justified by the calculation that collection of an additional unit in each case would avoid allogeneic transfusion in 11 (5%) more patients with the unnecessary collection of 208 units.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Haematology, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Pinkerton
mesh_terms: D001804:Blood Transfusion, Autologous / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006622:Hip Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D007720:Knee Prosthesis; D008297:Male; D009985:Orthopedics; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000601:surgery