Autologous blood transfusion in orthopedic and oral surgical patients.

The procedure for autologous blood transfusion in the orthopedic and oral surgical patients in our university hospital is described. The collection of blood was begun from 3 weeks prior to the scheduled surgery. Each time 200 or 400 ml were collected, making three collections possible. The collected blood was stored in liquid form up to the day of the operation and returned to the same patient. Without any difficulty, 600-1200 ml of blood were collected from many patients. All patients were prescribed an oral iron supplement (200 mg/day). No significant decrease in the serum iron and ferritin levels after two or three collections was observed. Eighty-nine percent of the orthopedic patients and 87% of the oral surgical patients were transfused only with autologous blood during the operation. Homologous blood transfusion was performed in the patients with more than 2,200 ml of blood loss. The autologous blood collection of 800 ml may be sufficient enough in at least 80% of these patients.