Kuzmenko S. Transfusion of washed autologous red blood cells in neonates undergoing open heart surgery for congenital heart defects.

The dissertation is devoted to the new method of blood conservation in neonatal open heart surgery, which involves the collection and transfusion of washed mediastinal blood and residual CPB circuit's blood after weaning from bypass using Cell Saver device.This is the first study in which the impact of transfusion of autologous washed red blood cells on the coagulation system was evaluated; cellular and biochemical composition of washed RBC's obtained using the Cell Saver was also evaluated in this study. In the group of patients operated on using intraoperative reinfusion of autologous red blood cells a percentage of patients who avoided additional donor RBC's increased statistically significant, from 15.9% to 40% (p<0.001). In addition, the study shows that with the use of autologous washed RBC's we were able to reduce the use of fresh frozen plasma during postperfusion period 86% to 77%.