Indications for intraoperative blood salvage.

Intraoperative blood salvage is an accepted, safe, and effective procedure which should be used more widely. Currently, intraoperative salvage is used predominantly in cardiac, vascular, and orthopedic surgery, but the variety of surgical procedures for which it is indicated continues to enlarge. Indications, apart from the type of surgery, include patients with religious objections to transfusions, rare blood types, or life-threatening hemorrhage from any cause. The future will likely produce an extension of the use of intraoperative salvage techniques to postoperative bleeding and to some patients with malignancy and infection.