[Intraoperative instrumental autotransfusion. 1st experiences in vascular surgery and traumatology]

Intraoperative autotransfusion with the Bentley-ATS system was performed in 22 patients, saving a total of 98 000 ml of their own blood. In addition 77 000 ml of homologous blood were given, intraoperatively. Eleven patients underwent major vascular surgery and 11 were operated for major traumatic injuries. There was a total of 11 deaths overall but none related to the autotransfusion. It is concluded that intraoperative autotransfusion is a safe and simple method of rapid transfusion which can save significant volumes of precious homologous blood.