The Effect of Acute Normovolaemic Haemodilution on Blood Transfusion Requirements in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

AbstractObjective to evaluate the impact of acute normovolaemic haemodilution (ANH) on the blood transfusion requirements in elective abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair in a single vascular unit. Methods thirty-two patients underwent ANH during elective AAA repair between 1992 and 1997. The operation was performed by the same surgeon/anaesthetist team in 75% of cases. Their demographic details, type of aneurysm (infra-renal or supra-renal), preoperative blood cross match, use of intra-operative red cell salvage, blood loss, peri-operative bank blood requirements, pre-op and on-discharge haemoglobin levels and post-operative outcome were recorded. The results were compared to a group of 40 randomly selected patients (to represent the unit average) who underwent elective AAA repair by variable surgeon/anaesthetist teams without ANH in the same time period. Results there were more supra-renal AAA repairs in the ANH group (8/32) than in the non-ANH group (0/40, p