If you’re even remotely familiar with surgery, you probably know that many patients will require a blood transfusion at some point in the process, especially if the patient is undergoing a major operation like open-heart surgery. Although such transfusions are often used to save lives, the process is a point of contention for many patients. For instance, Jehovah’s Witnesses reject transfusions on the ground of their religion, while other patients may worry about the presence of diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis, even though the blood they’d receive has been tested. With a demand for surgeries that don’t involve blood transfusions on the rise, surgeons and their teams have developed so-called “bloodless surgery,” which has become popular enough among patients to warrant entire surgery centers dedicated to it.

One of the key principles of bloodless surgery is to conserve the patient’s own blood to eliminate the need to use blood from donors. Years ago, the only way to do this was by slowly drawing pints and pints of a patient’s blood over the course of several months before the scheduled surgery date. That way, the surgical team would have a reserve of compatible blood ready for use. Obviously, that solution can take a huge investment in time on the patient’s part, but as technology advances, this is becoming less of a necessity. Instead, surgery teams can utilize a heart-lung bypass machine to circulate blood during surgery – a process that is especially important in cardiac surgery. Surgeons can also freeze sections of tissues before they are removed, or instantly cauterize wounds with scalpels in order to minimize bleeding. Granted, this amount of preparation can be laborious and take much longer than the ordinary pre-surgery process, but there are many benefits to be reaped by the patients.

In addition to allowing people to undergo surgery without violating their religious beliefs and without the risk of contracting a blood-borne disease, bloodless surgery has many other advantages. For example, operations often end up being less expensive overall because utilizing the patient’s own blood is much cheaper than purchasing many units of blood, plasma, and platelets produced by donors. Blood from donors needs to undergo a battery of tests and then be carefully stored, and it still deteriorates over the time it can take from extraction to transfusion. Beyond the cost efficiency, bloodless surgery may also allow patients to heal more quickly from their operations, giving them the chance to get back to their normal lives faster.

However, for all the possible benefits the skilled team at a bloodless surgery center can provide, there are downsides. The most important to address is the risk of exsanguination, or profuse bleeding. In such an emergency situation, the normal protocol would be to give the patient copious amounts of donor blood to ensure he or she doesn’t bleed to death. During bloodless surgery, however, it’s obvious that the patient did not want to have such a transfusion, leaving the staff to determine how to handle the issue.

Although there are some issues with it, bloodless surgery appears to be gaining traction as a more preferable method of completing an operation, and its popularity is growing over time. Perhaps in the future, the all-too-common blood transfusion will become an option of last resort rather than the first choice. If you’d like to find out more about bloodless surgery, look online for a surgery center that specializes in it in your area. The staff there should be more than happy to discuss their procedures and go over your options if you have a surgery pending.

John Soland is an experienced writer who has contributed to a number of notable publications. As a lifestyle expert, he is able to offer advice in various fields, including health.

John Soland is an experienced writer who has contributed to a number of notable publications. As a lifestyle expert, he is able to offer advice in various fields, including health. http://www.laserspinelocations.com/

Author Bio: John Soland is an experienced writer who has contributed to a number of notable publications. As a lifestyle expert, he is able to offer advice in various fields, including health.

Category: Medicines and Remedies
Keywords: surgery, alternative surgery, bloodless surgery