Use of intraoperative blood salvage during orthotopic liver transplantation.

Human liver transplantation is a developing surgical technique that requires a large volume of blood support. There are no published results of the use of intraoperative blood salvage in liver transplantation. We used automated intraoperative blood salvage during 13 initial consecutive human liver transplants. The procedures required a median of 32 units of packed red blood cell support, of which an average of 45% was supplied by intraoperative salvage. The percent of the total blood use provided by intraoperative salvage increased with increasing total blood needs. Intraoperative blood salvage applied to liver transplantation resulted in a net savings of blood and hospital costs of approximately $1,000 per procedure.