Bacterial contamination at ANH autologous transfusion

Background and objectivesIn Acute Normovolemic Hemodilution (ANH) which is practiced in operating room, whole blood is removed from a patient (while restoring the circulating blood volume with simultaneous infusions of suitable volume) shortly before or after the induction of anesthesia. This method is devoid of the major complications of homologous transfusion especially infectious diseases, except for the risk of bacterial contamination. This study aimed to evaluate the rate of blood contamination in ANH autologous transfusion. Materials and MethodsIn a cross sectional study, prevalence rates of bacterial contamination at ANH autologous transfusions on 71 patients in two separate centers in Tehran were compared. From each patient, 1-3 blood bags were taken from arterial line. Before transfusion, 10ml of the blood was sampled and cultured in “Brain Heart Infusion Broth”. After inspecting the cultures, the bacterial contamination rate was calculated. ResultsThere were 96 samples but no positive culture was reported. The mean peri-operation bleeding of 7 patients (9.8%) was 2457 ml and their Hb counts was low (<10).It is while they received on average only 1.4 bags of homolougus blood, The mean Hb counts before operation and after were 14.53 and 12.44, respectively. ConclusionsIn this study which was performed at two separate medical centers no bacterial contamination due to ANH transfusion was observed showing ANH safety as far as bacterial contamination is concerned.