This book aims to be a guide to the practice of blood conservation. The first chapter discusses the legal and administrative aspects of bloodless medicine describing the legal principles and practical issues relatd to refusal of transfusion. The second is on balancing the risks and benefits of transfusion includes clinical vignettes of appropriate and inappropriate transfusion. The remainder of the book covers the principles and practice of bloodless medicine, including a chapter on the scientific issues of haemostasis and the investigation of bleeding idsorders. The book concludes with chapters on blood conservation in neonatal and paediatric surgery, the costs associated with blood transfusion and the quest for artifical blood. New chapters will be included to address blood utilization in oncology and geriatric patients.

Contributors, ix
Preface, xiii

1 History of blood transfusion and patient blood management, 1
2 The ethical complexities of transfusion-free medicine, surgery and research, 19
3 Transfusion therapy – Balancing the risks and benefits, 28
4 The physiology of anemia and the threshold for blood transfusion, 61
5 Blood transfusion in surgery, 83
6 Current view of coagulation system, 102
7 Topical hemostatic agents, 143
8 Intraoperative strategies for transfusion-free medicine, 158
9 Post-operative management in transfusion-free medicine and surgery in the ICU, 207
10 The changing transfusion practice of neonatal and pediatric surgery, 222
11 Current management of anemia in oncology, 247
12 Artificial blood, 271
13 Translational strategies to minimize transfusion requirement in liver surgery and transplantation: Targeting ischemia-reperfusion injury, 289
14 Legal and administrative issues related to transfusion-free medicine and surgery programs, 315
15 Basic principles of bloodless medicine and surgery, 338

Index, 347