Study of the actual and potential utilization of autologous blood donation in four Central Sydney Area hospitals.

A study was conducted by the Clinical Quality Care Committee of the Central Sydney Area Health Service, of four Area hospitals to determine the actual and potential utilization of predeposit autologous blood for the elective surgery patient population of these hospitals. Using the criteria of the NSW Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, elective surgery patients who required blood crossmatched were retrospectively assigned to three categories: eligible to donate autologous blood, ineligible to donate autologous blood and require further assessment. Of 515 patients in the 2 month study period, 190 were considered to have been eligible to donate autologous blood, and 90 were considered to have required further medical assessment prior to possible donation. Thus, 280 (54%) patients could have potentially donated blood. However, only 60 (11.7%) did donate autologous blood. Forty-three of these donations were from a specialty orthopaedic hospital for which utilization was significantly greater than for the other hospitals (P < 0.001). This study therefore found a clear underutilization of predeposit autologous blood for elective surgery procedures.