The Hb and Hto values were different between the control and intervention groups at several assessments. However, at discharge, only the Hb value in the group of patients who underwent PSH-NC was significantly lower in the intervention group (10.5 +/-1.1 g/dL) than in the control group (11.4 +/-0.9 g/dL), (p<0.05).
The indicators of postoperative recovery and complications were comparable between the study groups.
The prevalence of exposure to homologous blood fell from 43.8% in the control group to 11.6% in the intervention group (odds ratio, OR 0.16) for PSK, (p<0.001), from 75 to 17.4% (OR 0.07) for PSH-C, (p<0.001), and from 73.5 to 15.2% (OR 0.06) for PSH-NC, (p<0.001).
The units of packed red cells from homologous blood fell from 0.9 (+/- 1.1) in the control group to 0.2 (+/- 0.5) in the intervention group for PSK, (p<0.001), from 1.4 (+/- 1) to 0.3 (+/- 0.6) for PSH-C, (p<0.001), and from 1.8 (+/- 1.3) to 0.3 (+/- 0.8) for PSH-NC, (p<0.001).
The length of hospital stay decreased significantly in the intervention group (data not reported).
Among the intervention patients, there were 21 preoperative donations, 91 cases of postoperative blood salvage from drains, and 24 combinations of both techniques for PSK. There were also 45 preoperative donations for PSH-C, and for PSH-NC, 24 preoperative donations, 6 cases of postoperative blood salvage from drains, and 14 combinations of both techniques.
Finally, again for the intervention patients, for PSK the index of re-infusion of autologous units was 52.4% with preoperative donation and 37.5% with combined preoperative donation and postoperative blood salvage from drains. The index was 74% with preoperative donation for PSH-C, and for PSH-NC, 90% with preoperative donation and 56.8% with combined preoperative donation and postoperative blood salvage from drains.