AUTOLOGOUS TRANSFUSION AFMC EXPERIENCE (1992-1996).

In this era of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and other infectious diseases - complications of homologous blood transfusion, autologous transfusion is the safest possible blood for transfusion. The present study was conducted from January 1992 to August 1996 to analyse the programme of autologous transfusion. A total of 471 pre-operative autologous collections were undertaken out of a total of 27,542 blood collections during this period. The present study shows a significant increase in autologous collections from 0.44 per cent in 1992 to 3.94 per cent till August 1996. 37.1 per cent autologous donors were from the urosurgery ward. Of the total 471 autologous blood units collected, 171 were transfused to the autologous donors (27.5%).