From episode 154 on the ECC stream. With Dr. Courtney Reddrop
If you’re not already doing auto-transfusions for your patients that have bled into a body cavity - why not? (This episode is the comprehensive guide on when and how to, if you haven’t listened to it yet.) Maybe the reason is that you’ve heard, or you're worried about, spreading those nasty little hemangiosarcoma cells throughout the body by pumping cancer-filled blood into your patient's veins? Good point, but here’s what I’ve learnt about this that makes me happy to auto-transfuse these patients:
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You’re not the one spreading the cancer. If it hasn’t already spread before the crisis, then, once that cancer-contaminated blood filled the abdomen when the mass ruptured, neoplastic cells went EVERYwhere. So my auto-transfusion is very unlikely to be the reason why the patient gets sick from mets 3 months later.
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Having said that - JUST in case my patient is the one lucky hemangiosarc patient with zero spread at the time of a bleed, we’ve now started using leukocyte reduction filters, which have been shown to effectively eliminate hemangiosarcoma cells from transfused blood. (Click here to see what the filters look like.)
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