[Haemodilution in neurosurgical operations (author's transl)]

The subject of this paper is an investigation of the usefulness of haemodilution in neurosurgical operations. The studies were carried out on 30 patients undergoing operations for intracranial aneurysms (17 patients) or intracranial tumours (13 patients). The control group consisted of 50 patients undergoing operations for intracranial tumours (25 patients) or cerebral aneurysms (25 patients). It was found that during haemodilution cerebral oedema did not occur during the operation, while in the control group cerebral oedema was observed in 28% operations of the cerebral aneurysms and in 56%-- of the cerebral tumors. The amount of transfused blood in the group with intracranial tumors was diminished by ca 150 ml and in the group with cerebral aneurysms blood transfusion was not necessary at all (in the control group the average transfusion was 310 ml). Described method in correlation with the controlled hypotension should be more widely used in the neurosurgical operations.