Predeposited autologous blood for elective surgery. A national multicenter study.

To determine the extent to which autologous blood that has been donated in advance ("predeposited") is used in patients undergoing elective surgery and to assess whether predonation decreases the use of homologous blood and the demand on the blood supply, we studied 4996 patients undergoing elective surgery at 18 tertiary care hospitals. Cross-matched blood was ordered for 1287 patients (26 percent), and of these, 590 (46 percent) were considered eligible for predepositing blood. Only 5 percent (32) of the eligible patients actually predeposited blood, indicating that predonation is not widely used. Of those who predeposited, only 13 percent (4 of 32) subsequently received homologous blood, as compared with 36 percent (199 of 558) of those who did not predeposit (P less than 0.01). Among the 199 patients who did not predeposit but required transfusion, we estimate that predonation could have avoided homologous transfusion in as many as 68 percent. If all eligible patients had predeposited autologous blood, they could have supplied as much as 72 percent of their own transfused red cells. The blood for as much as 10 percent of all red-cell transfusions could have been predonated by and transfused into the patients undergoing elective surgery. Greater use of predonation would not only reduce the demand on the blood supply by decreasing the need for homologous transfusion, but would probably also reduce the risk of hepatitis and other transfusion-associated illnesses.