Impact of a programme of autologous blood donation on the incidence of infection in patients with colorectal cancer.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the effects of both autologous and homologous blood transfusion on the incidence of infective complications after elective operations for colorectal cancer.

DESIGN

Prospective open study.

SETTING

University hospital, Italy.

INTERVENTIONS

Recording of variables known to influence the development of infection.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Infective morbidity and mortality.

RESULTS

Fifty-three patients (33%) deposited their own blood. Eighty-six of the 161 (53%) patients were transfused, 36 were given autologous blood, 48 homologous blood and 2 both autologous and homologous blood. These two were excluded from the analysis. Infective complications developed in 28 patients (17%), of which 7/75 (9%) were in patients who had not been transfused, 5/56 (14%) in patients given autologous transfusion, and 16/48 (33%) in patients given homologous transfusions (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified homologous blood transfusion as the only variable significantly associated with the development of postoperative infective complications. No patient died.

CONCLUSION

Transfusion of autologous blood was associated with significantly fewer postoperative infective complications than transfusion of homologous blood or no blood transfusion.