Clinical efficacy of Bellovac ABT - 1

Clinical efficacy of post-operative autotransfusion of filtered shed blood in hip and knee arthroplasty

E.W.G. Weber, S. Gielen-Wijffels, R. Van Drumpt, S. Bulstra, R. Slappendel, M.E. Durieux and M.A.E. Marcus
Optimized blood management for elective orthopaedic surgery, Medical Thesis, E.W.G. Weber, ISBN 90 5278 394 2

Aim: To study the effectiveness of bellovac ABT cell salvage system.
Method: 135 patients compared to historic control group.
Results: Autotransfusion reduced the percentage of patients receiving allogenic blood from 35 to 22 %. The decrease in TKA was significant (from 18 to 6 %).
Conclusion: Bellovac ABT reduces homologous blood transfusions in TKA. The system is also less complicated and expensive than using the washing technique. The authors recommend the use of Bellovac ABT in TKA surgery.