Bloodless Medicine and Surgery: A Viable Alternative in a Scarce Blood Resource Environment

Abstract

Around the world, there has been a growing interest in the use of alternatives to blood transfusion. This interest is necessitated in part by the recognition of the rights of patients to refuse some medical procedures by the World Medical Association. Other reasons include scarcity of blood and blood products especially for patients with rare blood groups and some patients with religious beliefs that forbid the use of blood and blood products. The latter reason has led to the issue of codes for the management of such patients by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. It has also led to the establishment of bloodless medicine and surgery centres in some parts of the world. The use of alternatives to blood transfusion and how bloodless medicine and surgery can be successfully carried out in a blood resource poor environment is the subject of this paper.

Key Words; Anaemia, Bloodless medicine and surgery, alternatives erythropoiesis.