Autologous blood transfusion in oral and maxillofacial surgery patients with the use of erythropoietin

Background: Autologous blood transfusion presents few infectious or immunol ogic side effects. The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of autologous blood transfusion with or without recombinant human erythrop oietin (rHuEPO) in patients who underwent elective maxillofacial operations . Material: Seventy eight consecutive patients (29 men and 49 women) underw ent elective maxillofacial operations during the years 1990-95, Study desig n and Methods: The patients were randomly assigned to three groups: In grou p 1, 30 patients preoperatively underwent autologous blood predonation with intravenous injection of erythropoietin 600 IU/kg after each blood predona tion and autologous blood transfusion intraoperatively; in group 2, 28 pati ents underwent the same procedure without erythropoietin and in group 3, 20 patients underwent homologous transfusion serving as control group. All pa tients received ferrous sulphate daily by mouth, preoperatively until one w eek postoperatively, Results: Group 1 patients showed higher levels of haem atocrit, haemoglobin and red blood cell count pre- and postoperatively than the group 2 patients. It was also shown that the use of rHuEPO contributed to an improvement of the blood parameters of the patients in the group 1 c ompared with those of the patients in groups 2 and 3, (C) 2001 European Ass ociation for Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery.