The Status of Information About the Use of Blood, Blood Substitutes, and Adjuvant Solutions for Extracorporeal Circulation *

HEPARINIZED whole blood, freshly drawn on the day of operation, has been preferred for use in extracorporeal circulation on the basis of empirical reasoning and because of the early succes~es experienced in openheart surgery. More recently, some surgeons have begun to use fresh ACD blood. However, the practice of using fresh whole blood, whether heparinized or ACD, causes difficulties in procurement of the blood. For instance, in some metropolitan centers, as much as 10 per cent of all blood collected may be used for extracorporeal circulation. The amount so used in the entire United States is unknown; Red Cross representatives estimate that their Regional Blood Centers alone supply approximately 100,000 units a year for this purpose, so probably a total of over 200,000 pints are used each year. Some measure of the effort that this involves is provided by the Los Angeles Red Cross R,egional Blood Center. In this center an average of 150 telephone calls are made to obtain 19 units of blood, needed for the average open-heart procedure. The need for blood banking and other medical resources to perform these procurement tasks obviously reduces the amount oE time that can be applied to the performance of other essen-