DIFFERENCES IN POSTOPERATIVE INFECTION-RATES BETWEEN PATIENTS RECEIVING AUTOLOGOUS AND ALLOGENEIC BLOOD-TRANSFUSION - A METAANALYSIS OF PUBLISHED RANDOMIZED AND NONRANDOMIZED STUDIES

We have undertaken a meta-analysis of the post-operative infection rat es in patients who received autologous blood compared with allogeneic blood. Nine studies published after 1989 were identified, of which sev en had sufficient data on transfusion given in the paper to be include d, giving a total of 1060 patients. The risk of post-operative infecti on was greater in the allogeneic group, odds ratio 2.37 (95% confidenc e interval (CI) 1.6-3.6, P < 0.0001) compared with the autologous grou p. Allogeneic and autologous blood transfusion should be compared in a large multicentre randomized control trial.