ABSTRACT
Although blood and blood component transfusion requirements have steadily fallen since the introduction of improved techniques for cardiopulmonary bypass, such as membrane oxygenators, a significant proportion of patients require to be transfused following cardiac surgical procedures. Preoperative template bleeding time, which depends on platelet function, fails to predict postoperative blood transfusion. The nature of the cardiac operation, together with the technique and skill of the team carrying it out, will determine the likely extent of blood loss sustained by the patient. The patient’s body weight and starting haemoglobin, together with the surgical/anaesthetic team’s preferred target postoperative haemoglobin, determine the amount of blood loss the patient can sustain without the need for a blood transfusion. Unlike the other modalities of autologous transfusion, postoperative cell salvage has the ability to make a source of blood available for a haemorrhaging patient in proportion to the rate at which haemorrhage is occurring.
