[Is hemodilution sufficient to avoid homologous blood transfusion in reduction mammaplasties?].

The unpredictability of blood loss during reductive mammoplasties induced the authors to use a blood-sparing technique so as to avoid homologous transfusions. Intentional isovolaemic haemodilution (IIH) was performed in 38 patients. Clinical and biological criteria were used for analyzing the results. In this prospective study, IIH could not prevent the necessity of homologous transfusion for 3 patients, in the early postoperative period. In one of these cases, clotting of blood prevented its utilization. Therefore IIH appears to be an interesting alternative blood-sparing method in patients who cannot benefit easily from preoperative programmed blood auto-donation.