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The Cost Effectiveness Of Preoperative Autologous Blood Donations, Jeff Etchason, Lawrence Petz, Emmett Keeler, Loni Calhoun, Steven Kleinman, Cynthia Snider, Arlene Fink, Robert Brook

Emmett Keeler

Background: Since the recognition that human immunodeficiency virus is transmissible by blood transfusion there has been increasing public and professional support for autologous blood donations before elective surgery. Autologous blood donation is, however, a more expensive process than the donation of allogeneic blood by community volunteers. Furthermore, there have been recent improvements in the safety of the volunteer blood supply. Methods: We used a decision-analysis model to assess the cost effectiveness of donating autologous blood for four surgical procedures. Cost data were collected from the observation of transfusion practice at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1992. Estimates of …