Methods	Prospective randomised trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of post-operative autologous blood transfusion carried out in two matched groups of twenty patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass surgery. Method of randomisation and allocation concealment were not described
Participants	40 patients (33 males and 7 females) undergoing elective coronary artery bypass surgery were randomised to one of two groups: Group 1 (Autologous blood transfusion group): n=20 Group 2 (Control group): n=20 Mean (range) age for both groups = 55.75 (33-69) years.
Interventions	Group 1: received postoperative autologous blood transfusion (AT) using the Shiley hardshell venous reservoir. At the end of the operation in theatre, the chest drains were connected to the Shiley hardshell venous reservoir using the Shiley drainage set. After the system was primed and specimens obtained for haematological, biochemical, and bacteriological analyses, transfusion of the shed blood was commenced, the rate depending on the amount of drainage, reinfusing the previous hours blood loss over the subsequent hour. At the end of 6 hours the AT was discontinued and further specimens were obtained. Group 2: patients were managed in the same manner without the use of autologous blood transfusion.
Outcomes	Outcomes reported: amount of blood re-transfused from the cell saver, amount of allogeneic blood transfused, number of patients transfused allogeneic blood, hospital length of stay, mortality, blood loss, haematological variables, adverse events
Notes	Transfusion threshold: allogeneic blood transfusion was used only when the haematocrit fell below 25%, haemoglobin below 9.0g/dL or the blood loss exceeded 500mls in the first 4 hours
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors’ judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method used to generate allocation sequences was not described
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Method used to conceal treatment allocation was unclear.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk