[Quality control in autologous blood donation and transfusion]

In Germany the quality control for homologous blood preparations is well-established. On the other hand, the quality assurance for autologous blood products is much more complicated, due to more problems concerning blood collection and preparation. Therefore, quality control is even more strongly indicated in autologous hemotherapy. On the basis of existing standards for the preparation of homologous blood components, we defined guidelines for the quality control of the autologous preoperative blood deposit, plasmapheresis, acute normovolemic hemodilutions and the intraoperative autotransfusions. We took into account that particularly the perioperative techniques only allow the collection of blood components with a reduced quality. The guidelines include the recommendation of adequate schooling for the staff.