SUBCUTANEOUS RECOMBINANT-HUMAN-ERYTHROPOIETIN AND AUTOLOGOUS BLOOD DONATION BEFORE CORONARY-ARTERY BYPASS-SURGERY

Conventional therapies with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) to sustain preoperative autologous blood collection entail high doses of the drug at short intervals. To evaluate the efficacy of a single w eekly dose of rHuEPO for autologous blood collection, we randomly assi gned 24 male patients scheduled for coronary artery bypass surgery to receive 400 IU/kg rHuEPO subcutaneously once a week or iron only Patie nts were examined weekly and a total of up to 4 units of autologous bl ood were obtained if the hemoglobin level exceeded 12 g/dL. Patients r eceiving rHuEPO had consistently higher hemoglobin values than those r eceiving iron only (P < 0.001). Consequently, more autologous red cell s were obtained from this group (776 +/- 49 mL vs 682 +/- 91 mL; P < 0 .05). One patient receiving rHuEPO and eight in the control group requ ired homologous blood at surgery (P < 0.01). These results suggest tha t 400 IU/kg rHuEPO administered subcutaneously once a week efficiently stimulates erythropoiesis and compensates the hemoglobin decrease aft er autologous blood donation.