Autologous Blood Donation Before Elective Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

Abstract   Purpose. Preoperative autologous blood donation reduces exposure to homologous blood transfusions in cardiac surgery. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the volume of predonated autologous blood needed to avoid homologous blood transfusion in scheduled off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (off-pump CABG). Methods. Fifty-six patients underwent scheduled off-pump CABG between January 1999 and December 2000. These patients all donated either 400ml (group 1, n = 33) or 800ml (group 2, n = 23) of autologous blood before operation. These patients donated at a rate of 400ml per week. All patients were given an equal volume of saline solution at the time of autologous donation.