The Annals of thoracic surgery
-
Increasing numbers of operations requiring cardiopulmonary bypass have been accompanied by greater demands for blood resources. Improved techniques of blood conservation have diminished the average blood requirements per operation and have increased the percent of operations that can be done without homologous blood. ⋯ The availability of techniques for filtration, centrifugation, and washing of blood have improved the safety of autotransfusion. The techniques that gives the best cost/benefit ratio appear to be preoperative withdrawal of blood, reinfusion of centrifuged oxygenator contents, and reinfusion of filtered blood from chest drainage.