An intraoperative autotransfusion was planned in order to decrease or to avoid transfusion of blood in severe surgical cases. It was done a comparative study in 14 0 heart surgeries; 70 cases (Group A) were submitted to heart surgery making use of Cell-Saver and 70 without the use of it. The majority of the cases have had a previous surgery; 77.1 % of the cases in Group A and 74.2 % in Group B. Besides this similarity other likeness included age, sex, kind of surgery, clinical conditions and laboratory data concerning coagulation, erythrocyte count and blood biochemistry. The averaged homologous blood volume intraoperative transfused was 628 ml in Group A and 1271 ml in Group B, but it was 479 ml in Group A and 1095 ml in Group B after surgery. The intraoperative blood lost was 38 0 ml in Group B. During the hospitalization time the percentage of cases that did not receive blood was 5.7 % in Group A and 2,8 % in Group B. The average amount of units transfused was 2 in Group A and 3 ro 5 or higher in Group B. The study pointed out that intraoperative autologous transfusion using Cell Saver is a safety and efficient procedure. The transfusion of homologous blood decreased in 50 % as well as the risk of infection disease to be transmited.
blood
