| Abstract: | In a prospective study on the causes and frequency of hepatitis after operations on the open heart, two homogeneous groups of patients were formed. In one of them, the amount of homologous blood was reduced to half by means of preoperative donations of autologous blood, the total blood requirement remaining the same. Hepatitis occurred postoperatively in 10% of the cases. The factors which gave rise to the hepatitis were large-pool clotting preparations, transfusion with homologous blood and cross-infection in the hospital. Even after exclusion of other risk factors, the frequency of hepatitis among the recipients of coagulation preparations was around 60%. The frequency of the cases of hepatitis due to foreign blood was about 5 per 100 patients or about 1 per 100 units of blood. By use of autologous blood collected preoperatively, the risk due to transfusion could be lowered by 50%. In polytransfusion, a disproportionately high rise in the risk of hepatitis was observed. It is probably to be ascribed to unknown factors in the hospital environment ("nosocomial hepatitis"). |
