Acute normovolemic hemodilution and intraoperative cell salvage in aortic surgery.

This retrospective study reviews the blood conservation strategy developed in patients undergoing infrarenal aortic surgery in a tertiary vascular unit from 1995 to 2001. The authors show that the judicious association of acute normovolemic hemodilution and intraoperative cell salvage combined with restrictive transfusion triggers and careful surgery can dramatically reduce the use of allogeneic blood transfusion during infrarenal aortic surgery.

– Philippe Van der Linden