Bloodless Options
Ways to avoid the adverse events associated with allogenic transfusion are often grouped under the umbrella phrase bloodless surgery. There are several so-called bloodless options. These include:
- Minimally invasive surgical techniques
- Erythropoietin (a hormone that stimulates peripheral stem cells in the bone marrow to produce red blood cells)
- Blood substitutes such as blood volume expanders and oxygen carriers (the latter as yet unlicensed in North America)
- Autologous blood donation, including pre-operative donation (suitable only for scheduled surgery in which transfusion is anticipated) and intraoperative autologous donation and blood salvage.
Intraoperative blood salvage has been used for many years, especially in cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, where blood usage has traditionally been high.
Read more about this topic: Intraoperative Blood Salvage
Famous quotes containing the word bloodless:
“Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)