Efficacy of Preoperative Autologous Blood Donation in Free TRAM Flap Breast Reconstruction

Abstract

Few patients in the nondonor group required perioperative transfusion, and fewer than half of the donors received their blood back. There was a statistically significant higher rate of surgical complications associated with autologous blood donation, most likely due to relative preoperative anemia. Autologous donation was associated with a significantly higher rate of transfusion intraoperatively and postoperatively. The authors do not recommend autologous blood donation before free TRAM flap autogenous breast reconstruction.