How successful are blood conservation methods?
Over the past 5 years, Cincinnati Children’s has found that initiation of blood conservation methods has resulted in significantly less blood loss following surgery, due to better blood clotting function. These methods have also led to a decrease in the number of blood product exposures to one fourth of prior rates in selected groups of patients. In patients undergoing atrial septal defect (ASD) closure, no blood products were used during the entire hospitalization for any patient over 20 kg. and for over 75 percent of patients between 10 and 20 kg. These strategies can even be successfully applied to some of the most complex newborn cardiac operations performed. For example, in newborns undergoing arterial switch operation for transposition of the great vessels, three-quarters of our patients were exposed to four or fewer blood units during their entire hospitalization.
