A. Vignali et al., IMPACT OF A PROGRAM OF AUTOLOGOUS BLOOD DONATION ON THE INCIDENCE OF INFECTION IN PATIENTS WITH COLORECTAL-CANCER, The European journal of surgery, 161(7), 1995, pp. 487-492
Objective: To assess the effects of both autologous and homologous blo
od transfusion on the incidence of infective complications after elect
ive operations for colorectal cancer. Design: Prospective open study.
Setting: University hospital, Italy. Interventions: Recording of varia
bles known to influence the development of infection. Main outcome mea
sures: Infective morbidity and mortality. Results: Fifty-three patient
s (33%) deposited their own blood. Eighty-six of the 161 (53%) patient
s were transfused, 36 were given autologous blood, 48 homologous blood
and 2 both autologous and homologous blood. These two were excluded f
rom the analysis. Infective complications developed in 28 patients (17
%), of which 7/75 (9%) were in patients who had not been transfused, 5
/56 (14%) in patients given autologous transfusion, and 16/48 (33%) in
patients given homologous transfusions (p <0.001). Multivariate analy
sis identified homologous blood transfusion as the only variable signi
ficantly associated with the development of postoperative infective co
mplications. No patient died. Conclusion: Transfusion of autologous bl
ood was associated with significantly fewer postoperative infective co
mplications than transfusion of homologous blood or no blood transfusi
on.