[Blood-saving procedures--anesthesiologic aspects. Autotransfusion procedures at a large clinic]

A major risc of blood transfusion is transmission of infectious diseases. The pattern of these diseases varies in different parts of the world. The fact, that diseases such as hepatitis or AIDS cannot completely be avoided has led to an increasing interest in autologous blood transfusion systems. In the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine of the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen the following methods of autotransfusion are performed: Acute normovolaemic haemodilution (ANH), intra- and postoperative autotransfusion (Cell-Saver, Haemonetics Corp.; Autotrans, Dideco Corp.), autologous donor-plasmapheresis and autologous predeposit. Using this methods the anaesthesiologic autotransfusion system in Giessen is capabel reducing bank blood requirements particularly in elective surgery such as cardiovascular surgery and orthopaedic surgery to a minimum. Most of these surgical procedures can be performed without transfusing any homologous blood substitutes.