BLOOD CONSERVATION BY AUTOTRANSFUSION

THIS report deals with an experience in 28 cases in which an improved technic of autotransfusion was used. A simple method is used to collect blood from an operative site and return it immediately to the patient by the intravenous route. This is not an original endeavor. Johannes Theis,¹ of Leipzig, Germany, is credited with the first use of autotransfusion for ruptured ectopic gestation in 1914. For a clean pool of blood he used the open, dipping, straining and citrating method. It involved the surgeon in an inefficient, time-consuming, awkward and surgically distracting job. The procedure was adopted in Europe, particularly in Germany. The complicated endeavor was rarely employed in this country; the largest series consisted of 21 cases reported in 1925² by Davis and Cushing. A simple safe method would probably find considerable favor.

A review of the literature on the 467 autotransfusions to date³ is