Autologous Blood Donation Before Elective Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

Purpose. Preoperative autologous blood donation reduces exposure to homologous blood transfusions in cardiac surgery. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the volume of predonated autologous blood needed to avoid homologous blood transfusion in scheduled off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (off-pump CABG). Methods. Fifty-six patients underwent scheduled off-pump CABG between January 1999 and December 2000. These patients all donated either 400ml (group 1, n = 33) or 800ml (group 2, n = 23) of autologous blood before operation. These patients donated at a rate of 400ml per week. All patients were given an equal volume of saline solution at the time of autologous donation. Results. There were no significant differences in the mean age, mean body weight, mean preoperative hematocrit values, mean graft number, or mean volume of intraoperative blood loss between groups 1 and 2. There was a significant difference in the mean postoperative day-7 hematocrit value (33.6% ± 1.3% vs 39.3% ± 1.3%, P 0.05). The rates of avoiding homologous blood transfusion were 63.6% in group 1 and 100% in group 2 (P 0.05). Conclusions. Autologous blood transfusion is effective for reducing the homologous blood requirement. We believe that an 800-ml predonation is sufficient to avoid homologous blood transfusion in scheduled off-pump CABG; furthermore, patients with cardiovascular disease, including severe coronary artery disease, should be administered saline along with the blood donation.