We evaluated the effectiveness of intraoperative autologous blood in reduction of the need for transfusion of ho-mologous blood in majör spinal surgery in two patient groups. İn Group A (30 patients) autologous blood and in Group B (30 patients) homologous blood were used. Ali patients who undement majör spinal surgery in two groups were compared; the homologous blood requirement was reduced from mean 2.77 units (Group B) to mean 0.82 units (Group A). This difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). Differences in both preoperative andpostoper-ative hematocrit values were statistically insignificant in two groups. İt seems benefİciai to use autologous blood in the operations vvhere the estimated blood loss is high, especially in spinal surgery.
Keywords: Spinal surgery, intraoperative autotransfusion.