Home > Encyclopedia of Surgery > Bloodless Surgery

Definition

Bloodless surgery is an approach to health care that began in the 1960s as simple avoidance of the use of transfused blood. It has grown over the last four decades, however, to include changed attitudes toward blood conservation as well as new technologies that minimize the need for transfusions during surgery. The Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut defines bloodless surgery as "...surgical and medical treatment without the administration of blood or blood-related products."

Purpose

The new interest in bloodless surgery has emerged from a variety of religious and social concerns as well as medical, legal, and economic issues.

Religious and ethical...