Autologous Blood Donation for Elective Gynaecological Surgery

Abstract

EDITORIAL COMMENT: We accepted this paper for publication because Australian women also are concerned about the possibility of a blood transfusion resulting in them developing the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The ease and success of this programme of autologous blood donation should encourage us to emulate our colleagues in Thailand and develop increasing use of this method in Australia. In this series 20% of patients (438 of2,160) scheduled for elective gynaecological surgery enrolled in the programme and 10% of these 438 received an autologous blood transfusion. The authors did not tell us the proportion of autologous to homologous blood transfusions in their institution. In the United States of America the target is for autologous transfusion to be 5–10% of all blood transfusions. Dr Gordon White, Director of Red Cross Blood Bank, informed the editor that in the State of Victoria less than 2% of all blood donations are for the purpose of autologous transfusion. However, there is increasing interest in the method and the rate of autologous blood donation has increased 40–60% in each of the last 2 years. Summary The utilization and effectiveness of a hospital autologous blood donation programme for elective gynaecological surgery at Ramathibodi Hospital during April 1,1988 ‐ March 31,1991 were analyzed. A total of 438 patients or 98% of eligible patients were enrolled into the programme. Each patient gave 1 unit of blood within 14 days of undergoing gynaecological surgery. The untoward effects observed in the programme were higher than those found in the regular donors. However, these were very mild. Nearly 90% of the participants used no homologous blood during their hospitalization, 8% used only their autologous blood, while 2% used additional homologous transfusion. The released autologous components were subsequently administered to other recipients. The patients' acceptance was excellent. Autologous blood donation is a safe, inexpensive and feasible procedure for transfusion treatment in elective gynaecological surgery especially in developing countries. Copyright © 1992, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved