Cost effectiveness of autologous blood transfusion--a developing country hospital's perspective

An autologous blood donation program was set up at National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi Lagos in 1992 in response to the rising prevalence of HIV observed in our & ; donors. A retrospective batch analysis of patients who received autologous transfusion and those who received homologous blood in our hospital in 1997 was carried out. Based on hospital charges, the mean charge (from the day of operation and excluding the cost of surgery) was dollars 116 (+/- dollars 7), median dollars 102 for those who donated and used their own blood compared to the mean charge of dollars 259.7 (+/- 116.3), median dollars 224, for homologous blood recipients (P=008). This was found to be due to a significant difference in the means of length of hospital stay of 21 days for autologous blood recipients, 34 for homologous blood recipients (P=0.009). The rate of infection was 85.7% for homologous blood recipients and 14.3% for autologous blood recipients