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Paolo De Rai; Roberto Biffi
University of Milan (Italy)

Paola Rebulla
Centro Trasfusionale e di Immunologia dei Trapianti Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Milan, Italy

JAMA. 1987;258(10):1332.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Intraoperative auto-transfusion, namely, the technique of blood aspiration from the surgical field and intravenous reinfusion of washed red blood cells, is employed in elective and emergency surgery with increasing frequency.¹ We used this technique to recover red blood cells trapped in the spleen of three patients (Table) in whom splenectomy had to be performed because of severe anemia associated with considerable splenomegaly. Patients 1 and 2, suffering from thalassemia, had potent irregular red blood cell alloantibodies in the serum, which made transfusion of compatible blood extremely difficult; patient 3 had myelofibrosis.

Methods.—

The procedure was performed as follows. Splenectomy was carried out with careful dissection of the vascular structures. The spleen was then placed on a sterile table, weighed, and perfused through the arterial stump with heparinized saline (30 x 10³ U/L). Perfusion was performed at a constant pressure of 150 mm Hg by means of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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