Perioperative blood salvage during surgical correction of craniosynostosisin infants

Surgical correction of craniosynostosis in infants is a very haemorrhagic p rocedure. The aim of this study was to determine whether the perioperative use of the continuous autotransfusion system (CATS) would reduce homologous transfusion during repair of craniosynostosis. Two groups of patients were studied according to the availability of the CATS in our hospital. The con trol group had surgery before the system was introduced and the study group had operations subsequently. Use of CATS was associated with a significant decrease in the median (95% confidence interval) volume of homologous bloo d transfused [413 (250-540) ml in the control group versus 317 (150-410) mi in the CATS group, P=0.02] and in the median (95% confidence interval) num ber of packed red cell units transfused [2 (1-2) in the control group versu s 1 (1-2) in the CATS group, P=0.04] in the perioperative period. Use of CA TS is associated with a reduction in homologous transfusion during the surg ical correction of craniosynostosis in infants.