Preliminary evaluation of a new autologous blood cell separator dideco electa

Abstract

Homologous blood is a precious and limited resource. For this reason, the autologous pre-operative collection of whole blood or separated components and blood salvage in the intra and post-operative phases are important procedures to improve the surgical patient outcome in a cost-effective way. As well, the utilisation of autologous techniques is a major help in reaching blood self-efficiency for the hospital. In particular, in the last years the intra-operative salvage systems have been developed to assure ease of use and automation for both skilled and unskilled users. A new apparatus has been tested in our hospital in order to verify the basic aspect of functionality, handling and quality of the washed blood. The dideco electa is an intra-operative blood salvage system that allows the concentration and washing of the red blood cells collected during the surgical procedure. The system is able to perform automated pre-operative blood collection and intra-operative blood salvage. In this preliminary analysis, twenty intra-operative blood salvage procedures were performed on different patients in vascular, orthopedic and general surgery using the 3.0 version of the system, by evaluating the handling of the system and the quality of the blood reinfused to the patient. The system was used also in tumor surgery; in this case the blood collected was irradiated. According to the specific surgical operation 125 or 225 ml classic latham bowls were used. The program was automatically selected by the machine according to the bowl volume. The average processed volume was 1997 ml. The average collected volume was 535 ml, with a minimum of 120 ml and a maximum of 1400 ml. The average Hct in the reinfusion bag was 51% and the average FPH removal 93%. The average removal of PLT was 91% and 54% the WBC removal. The system has shown good results in terms of blood recovery and a good acceptance by the personnel. The next step will be the analysis of the apheretic potentialities of the system.