[Post-transfusion hepatitis: can the problem be solved today? (author's transl)]

Among 333 patients followed-up after surgery involving a heart-lung machine between 1975 and 1976 seven (2.1%) fell ill with hepatitis. Only in two of them (0.6%) hepatitis B had occurred, caused by HBs-antigen positive blood which had had to be given for a vital indication without testing beforehand. This low rate of disease must now be considered preventable, as in 1975, the time of the transfusions, blood donor control had not reached present-day perfection due to the short period of use of radioimmuno-assay (RIA). In two patients (0.6%) non-B hepatitis following transfusion cannot be excluded although in one patient use of PPSB may be responsible for the disease. Among the 3 other hepatitis cases no aetiological connection between hepatitis and transfusion could be established on the grounds of the incubation period.