Patterns of autologous blood use in elective orthopedic surgery: does the availability of autologous blood change transfusion behavior?

We studied the orthopedic surgery service at our institution to determine whether the mere availability of autologous blood (AB) affected transfusion practice. As a group, patients who had AB available received an average of 1.11 fewer red cell units per hospitalization than did patients with only homologous blood (HB) available. At every transfusion episode, those patients having AB available received fewer red cell units than did patients without AB available. Predeposit of autologous red cells was effective in protecting 77.6% of patients from HB exposure. The availability of autologous red cells resulted in an overall more conservative approach to transfusion.