Annals of cardiac anaesthesia
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In a prospective study, 60 patients posted for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) were assigned to 2 groups of 30 each. (group A =combination of acute normovolaemic haemodilution (ANH) and retrograde autologous priming (RAP), group B=control). The aim was to investigate whether retrograde autologous priming reduces haemoditution as compared to control cases. Patients who had a history of previous cardiac surgery and patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction, were excluded. ⋯ Blood components and products were not used in this study. The average fall in haematocrit (Hct) on CPB was 27.03% in the study group versus 39.5% in the control group (P < 0.001). Thus retrograde autologous griming in combination with autologus transfusion significantly reduces the need for bank blood.