Transfusion Medicine — Blood Conservation

Preoperative Autologous Donation Preoperative autologous donation was rarely used before the recognition that HIV could be transmitted by blood transfusion. Fifteen years ago, fewer than 5 percent of eligible patients who were scheduled for elective surgery chose autologous blood donation.121 When public awareness of the possibility of transfusion-transmitted HIV became widespread, however, there was concern that too few patients were choosing autologous blood donation as an option. Several states, including California, passed legislation requiring that whenever it was “reasonably” likely that transfusion would be needed, a patient should be informed of all of the options regarding and alternatives to allogeneic . . .