Autologous blood donation elective surgery in children.
Studies were made on 59 children (cardiac 42, orthopaedic 13, miscellaneous 4) scheduled for autologous blood donation before elective surgery. The donor-patients' ages ranged from 3 to 15 years (mean 9.9 years) and their weights from 13 to 70 kg (mean 34 kg). All patients received 50-100 mg of oral iron sulphate per day. As a rule, about 10% of intravascular blood volume was drawn once a week. Before surgery, an average of 720 ml of autologous blood per patient was prepared. Two patients failed to donate autologous blood because of anxiety about the procedure; however, none of the donors was deferred due anaemia associated with the phlebotomy. Of the 53 patients undergoing surgery and participating in autologous predonation, 50 (94%) were able to avoid homologous blood transfusion. 600 ml of homologous blood were transfused to each of 2 orthopaedic patients and 400 ml to 1 cardiac patient. We conclude that a predeposit autologous transfusion programme is logistically possible in small children when the patients are cooperative.
Tasaki
T
T
Blood Transfusion Service, Fukushima Medical College, Japan.
Ohto
H
H
Noguchi
M
M
Abe
R
R
Kikuchi
S
S
Hoshino
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001782:Blood Donors; D001804:Blood Transfusion, Autologous; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged