title: The effect of acute normovolaemic haemodilution on blood transfusion requirements in abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to evaluate the impact of acute normovolaemic haemodilution (ANH) on the blood transfusion requirements in elective abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair in a single vascular unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  thirty-two patients underwent ANH during elective AAA repair between 1992 and 1997. The operation was performed by the same surgeon/anaesthetist team in 75% of cases. Their demographic details, type of aneurysm (infra-renal or supra-renal), preoperative blood cross match, use of intra-operative red cell salvage, blood loss, peri-operative bank blood requirements, pre-op and on-discharge haemoglobin levels and post-operative outcome were recorded. The results were compared to a group of 40 randomly selected patients (to represent the unit average) who underwent elective AAA repair by variable surgeon/anaesthetist teams without ANH in the same time period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  there were more supra-renal AAA repairs in the ANH group (8/32) than in the non-ANH group (0/40, p<0.01). ANH patients required significantly less blood transfusion peri-operatively (median 2 units) than the non-ANH patients (median 3 units, p=0.02). There were no other significant differences between the variables measured.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  these results suggest that a dedicated team can achieve significant reductions in the use of heterologous blood transfusion compared to the vascular unit average experience by the effective use of ANH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wolowczyk
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nevin
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Baird
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Lamont
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery*; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D001804:Blood Transfusion, Autologous; D001810:Blood Volume; D005260:Female; D006438:Hemodilution; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010952:Plasma Substitutes / Q000008:administration & dosage; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D010952:Plasma Substitutes