BLOOD CONSERVATION BY AUTOTRANSFUSION

THIS report deals with an experience in 28 cases in which an improved technic of autotransfusion was used. A simple method is used to collect blood from an operative site and return it immediately to the patient by the intravenous route. This is not an original endeavor. Johannes Theis,1of Leipzig, Germany, is credited with the first use of autotransfusion for ruptured ectopic gestation in 1914. For a clean pool of blood he used the open, dipping, straining and citrating method. It involved the surgeon in an inefficient, time-consuming, awkward and surgically distracting job. The procedure was adopted in Europe, particularly in Germany. The complicated endeavor was rarely employed in this country; the largest series consisted of 21 cases reported in 19252by Davis and Cushing. A simple safe method would probably find considerable favor. A review of the literature on the 467 autotransfusions to date3is