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. 2010 Apr 14;2010(4):CD001888. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001888.pub4

Wiefferink 2007.

Methods Randomised controlled trial was conducted to investigate the influence of processing both shed mediastinal blood and residual cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) blood in patients undergoing isolated primary elective myocardial re‐vascularisation. Patients were randomly allocated to intervention or control using sealed, opaque, sequentially numbered envelopes. The sequence of allocations was obtained from a computer‐generated random number list. Clinicians in the Intensive Care Unit were blinded to the group.
Participants 30 patients undergoing isolated primary elective myocardial re‐vascularisation were randomly allocated to one of two groups:
  • Group 1 (Autotransfusion group): n=15; M/F=13/2; mean (sd) age = 62 (11.0) years

  • Group 2 (Control group): n=15; M/F=11/4; mean (sd) age = 66 (8.0) years

Interventions
  • Group 1: Autotransfusion group had their mediastinal and residual CPB blood processed by a continuous autotransfusion system (C.A.T.S. Frensenius, HemoCare) before reinfusion using the quality wash protocol.

  • Group 2: Control group did not receive autotransfusion.

Outcomes Outcomes reported: number of patients transfused allogeneic blood, plasma D‐dimer levels.
Notes  
Risk of bias
Bias Authors' judgement Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias) Low risk Method used to generate allocation sequences was adequate.
Allocation concealment (selection bias) High risk Method used to conceal treatment allocation was inadequate.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) 
 All outcomes High risk Single‐blind.