Saving surgical patients’ blood, cleaning it, and giving it back

BANGOR — For nearly 20 years, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center has been leading the way in decreasing blood loss and providing an alternative to receiving transfused blood during surgery.

The perioperative autologous blood collection and processing program, or Cell-Saver Program, was launched at the medical center by a few cardiac nurses during coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The program now boasts more than 200 staff who are specially trained to collect blood lost during surgery, clean it, and safely give it back to patients.

Traditionally, blood transfusions were viewed as an effective blood loss treatment during surgery. However, an evolving culture now considers transfusions an outcome to be avoided. The data shows the program provides several patient benefits and better outcomes:

• It’s safer to receive your own blood than that of another person.
• Blood transfusions may cause reactions, infections, or exposure to bacteria or other unwanted material that may be found in blood.
• It’s cost effective. A unit of blood costs five times more than a cell saver kit.
• Some faiths will not permit patients to have a blood transfusion, so this is a safe and appreciated option for those patients.

The Cell-Saver Program, which is a collaboration between the Patient Blood Management program, Nursing, and Anesthesia Teams, recently expanded by training a group of Anesthesia technicians. This allows the medical center to expand this important safe transfusion alternative to more areas and support more patients.