Blood Salvage From Liver Donors: a Feasibility Pilot Study

"Intervention is a 3-step procedure consisting of 1) recovering blood from the donor during organ procurement; 2) processing donor blood to RBC units; 3) transfusing donor blood to recipients, if necessary during surgery.~1. Donor blood recovery. A: Donor evaluation. During the donor workup, the donor coordinator team gathers additional information from the donor relatives. If no contraindication to blood collection exists, the donor-recipient ABO-crossmatch is performed, and if negative the donor is considered eligible. B: Donor blood collection. It is carried out by a trained investigator, through the continuous autotransfusion system CATSmart (Fresenius Kabi) in the surgery room.~2. Donor blood processing, carried out using the continuous flow CATSmart device. About 4 RBC units are collected.~3. Donor RBC unit transfusion to recipients according to procedures usually adopted at our hospital (final hb level 8-9 g/dL)."