Aprotinin in open-heart surgery: background and results in patients having aortocoronary bypass grafts

The recent interest in blood-borne infections from donor blood has brought the subject of blood conservation to the attention of all surgeons, but particularly to cardiac surgeons. This is principally because cardiac surgery has been, and remains, a major user of the resources of the transfusion services of every country. Until recently the vast majority of attempts to conserve blood have been based on accepting the inevitability of bleeding and using nonpharmacological methods of blood conservation. These methods have been described in earlier