UNLABELLED Intraoperative autotransfusion (MAT), preoperative autologous blood donation, and preoperative normovolaemic haemodilution are three different methods to avoid homologous blood transfusion during surgical procedures. The controversial use of MAT via cell saver in tumour surgery as well as contamination of the operative field with urine illustrate the particular difficulties of autologous blood transfusion in connection with radical prostatectomy. We investigated
changes in the osmotic resistance of the retransfused red blood cells (RBC), bacterial contamination, changes in coagulation parameters, and the presence of tumour cells. PATIENTS AND METHODS After written informed consent, 24 patients who presented for radical prostatectomy were randomly allocated to either a group that used MAT or a group that used homologous transfusion. The patients received "balanced anaesthesia" with midazolam, fentanyl, atracurium, and nitrous oxide/oxygen. The analysed parameters from the preoperative period to the 3rd postoperative day are shown in Table 1. The Haemonetics 3 Plus Cell Saver was used for autotransfusion. RESULTS Our results showed that the haematologic parameters, coagulation factors, and serum chemistry did not differ between the two groups (Tables 2-4). However, there were significant differences during the investigated period. The osmotic resistance of the salvaged RBCs was higher than that preoperatively. Furthermore, there were no tumour cells in the autologous salvaged RBCs. CONCLUSION Our results showed no decrease in the quality of the autotransfused RBCs, urine was not retransfused; and there were no significant differences between the groups postoperatively. Although there were no tumour cells in the salvaged blood, the possibility of blood irradiation is discussed. We concluded that because of the risk of infection of homologous blood products, MAT is a safe possibility to reduce the amount of homologous blood transfusion required in connection with radical prostatectomy.
