Overview/Definition

Many people, due to religious or personal convictions, object to receiving blood or blood products during medical treatment. "Bloodless Surgery" is a new procedure that incorporates several techniques and steps to help your body compensate for blood loss before, during and after surgery, without the use of donor blood. Also, the use of pharmaceutical agents, intravenous fluids, and improved diagnostic procedures and surgical techniques can prevent or lessen the anemia associated with surgery and other medical procedures.

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Methods

Several methods can be used in bloodless surgery with careful planning and state of the art techniques. Some of these methods are:

• Recombinant human erythropoietin, a synthetic hormone used to stimulate the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells.
• Preoperative autologous donation, an option for selected patients who wish to donate their own blood prior to certain elective surgeries
• Intraoperative surgical techniques and instruments (eg, ultrasound, gamma knife, argon beam) are available that can improve hemostasis. The use of these instruments, along with minimally invasive surgical approaches (eg, laparoscopy, endoscopy, interventional radiological procedures) can reduce surgical blood loss dramatically.
• Intraoperative hemodilution is the practice of withdrawing whole blood from patients before surgical blood loss and simultaneously replacing the withdrawn autologous blood with intravenous fluids. The whole fresh blood is kept in the OR in storage bags. After surgical bleeding has ended, the whole blood, complete with all coagulation factors functioning, is retransfused to patients.
• Biological products like collagen and cellulose woven pads stop bleeding by direct application
• Perioperative blood salvage includes the cell saver that recovers and recycles blood lost during surgery by collecting, cleaning, and returning blood to the patient.

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Benefits

Reduces danger of infection and immune suppression May allow for a shorter recovery time and quicker discharges Prevents cancellations or postponement of surgeries due to blood shortages Avoids costs associated with laboratory errors in blood typing.

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Spine Institute

Back surgery potentially involves significant blood loss. The Spine Center of New York is part of the New York Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, which is dedicated to providing high quality health care without the use of donor blood or blood products, for patients who chose to do so during their medical treatment. We offer vast experience in protocols that enable patients to undergo surgery without blood transfusions.

The Spine Institute uses this procedure in treating a large Jehovah Witness population - the world headquarters for Jehovah Witnesses -in the Brooklyn area. The Bloodless surgery incorporates techniques that include both nerve sparring and minimal blood losses.

For more information please call The New York Center For Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at 1-888-299-6625.

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