Cell Salvage Used in Scoliosis Surgery: Is It Really Effective?

Abstract

Background: Scoliosis surgery usually is associated with large volume of intraoperative blood loss, and cell salvage is used commonly to filter and retranfusion autologous blood to patients. The efficacy of using cell salvage in scoliosis surgery, however, is still controversial.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to make clear that intraoperative use of cell salvage is effective to decrease the volume of perioperative allogenic blood transfusion in scoliosis surgery.

Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted to identify the relevant studies from PubMed, Embase, Medline, Cochrane library, and Google scholar until July 2016. All randomized trials and controlled clinical studies comparing the clinical outcomes of using cell salvage versus noncell salvage in scoliosis surgery were retrieved for the meta-analysis. The data were analyzed by RevMan 5.3.

Results: A total of 7 studies with 562 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Based on the analysis, the volumes of perioperative and postoperative allogenic red blood cell (RBC) transfusion in cell salvage group were significantly less than those in control group (P = 0.04 and P = 0.01); however, no significant difference was detected in the amount of intraoperative allogenic RBC transfusion and the risk of patients needing allogenic blood transfusion between the 2 groups (P = 0.14 and P = 0.61). Both the hemoglobin and hematocrit levels on the first day after surgery were significantly greater in cell salvage group than those in control group (P = 0.002 and P < 0.001). No significant differences, however, were noted in neither hemoglobin nor hematocrit level at the time of discharge between the 2 groups (P = 0.76 and P = 0.32). One of the included study reported the number of patients with complications related to transfusion in the two groups, which was not significant different (P = 0.507).

Conclusions: Cell salvage significantly reduced the volumes of perioperative and postoperative allogenic RBC transfusion in scoliosis surgery and increased the hemoglobin and hematocrit levels on the first day postoperatively. In addition, it seemed not to increase the rate of transfusion complications during the surgery.

Keywords: Cell salvage; Meta-analysis; Scoliosis; Transfusion.