RT Journal
A1 Reber HA, Hines O
T1 OPerative blood loss and survival in pancreatic cancer—reply
JF Archives of Surgery
JO Archives of Surgery
YR 2009
FD June 1
VO 144
IS 6
SP 591
OP 595
DO 10.1001/archsurg.2009.102
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.2009.102
AB 
We thank Drs Conway and Gagandeep for their comments. We agree that the EBL is less accurate than one might wish, and in our review of the University of California–Los Angeles experience with resection for pancreatic cancer, the recorded EBL value was that of the anesthesiologist’s, taken from the operative record. Because our report is a retrospective case series, the suggestion that EBL values were biased because they were being used as a performance indicator or end point is incorrect. The anesthesiologists (none of whom were coauthors of the article) “called it as they saw it” during the entire study period, and the data speak for themselves.