[Blood autotransfusion in head and neck surgery]

Autotransfusion as a method of blood compensation after multilative surgical operation in cases of malignant neoplasm of the maxillofacial region, was introduced in our clinical practice in 1989, and up to now we have performed it in a group of 23 patients. It has been known that an autotransfusion depends on the patients' general health situation, hemoglobin level, hematocrit and iron concentration in serum. We exfused at least three days before operation 450 ml of blood from each patient. The blood was taken into plastic bags and kept in the refrigerator at the temperature of +4 degrees C. The decrease of serum iron concentration was approximately 54.26% in all tested patients that demanded the substitution therapy with iron together with vitamin C before and after surgery. There was neither prolongation of postoperative treatment nor complications associated with this method of post-operative blood loss compensation. Based on obtained results we could conclude that the best method of inter- and postoperative blood compensation was autotransfusion, taking care about factors which could limit the possibilities of its applications.