Mechanical methods of reducing blood transfusion in cardiac surgery: randomised controlled trial.

This study assesses the effectiveness of intraoperative cell salvage with or without normovolemic hemodilution in patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass surgery. The results are not particularly new and the number of patients is small. However, there is a significant mean difference of transfused allogeneic blood in the various groups (1.07 unit in the control group versus 0.68 and 0.63 in the study groups). With regards to the relatively high postopera-tive Hb values (> 10 g/dL), it is questionable whether allogeneic transfusions have always been really necessary. Nevertheless, it is the first randomized, controlled trial. It is also interesting that additional preoperative hemodilution is without any effect.

– V. Kretschmer