[Preoperative autologous blood donation in heart surgery patients: laboratory parameters with oral iron substitution].

In this study we analyzed some hematologic parameters of 228 autologous blood donors at a cardiosurgic clinic. The standard schedule of drawing autologous blood at our clinic is 4 units whole blood (450 ml) and 1 unit plasma (750 ml) for a time of 5 weeks under iron substitution (equivalent to 240 mg Fe). In younger women this kind of drawing blood leads to an unacceptable decrease of hemoglobin concentration. The preoperative autologous blood donation results in an increase of erythropoiesis on the day of clinical admittance. The best parameters to supervise the hematologic situation of the outpatient autologous blood donors are the hemoglobin concentration and the hematocrit.