Intraoperative red blood cell salvage and autologous transfusion during open radical retropubic prostatectomy: a cost-benefit analysis.

Introduction: Open radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) has an average blood loss of over 1,000 ml. This has been reported even from high volume centres of excellence. We have looked at the clinical and financial benefits of using intraoperative cell salvage (ICS) as a method of reducing the autologous blood transfusion requirements for our RRP patients.