The passage of very high frequency electrical current through tissue to create a desired surgical effect. Specialized "pencils" or electrodes and a generator are used to deliver electrical energy to 'cut' tissue and/or coagulate blood. Unlike electroacautery, the tip of the electrosurgery instrument itself is not heated. Endosco [..]

Removal of a specific amount of blood during surgery, replace with intravenous (IV) fluids, and returned after surgery. This means the blood loss during surgery will contain less erythrocytes (red blood cells) and more water. Doing so will effectively reduce the amount of blood lost during surgery. This technique is only applicable in large surgery [..]

Acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH) is a blood conservation modality used in the operating room by anesthesiologists. Whole blood is drained by gravity into blood collection bags containing anticoagulant. As blood is collected, asanguinous fluid, either colloid and/or crystalloid, is infused to maintain hemodynamic stability and "normovolemi [..]

Blood that is donated from a person other than oneself. (Also known as banked or homologous blood.) The term is typically used for biological material taken from different individuals of the same species. Two or more individuals are said to be allogeneic to one another when the genes at one or more loci are not identical. Alloimmunization

Anemia is derived from Greek, (an-haîma) meaning "without blood." It is defined as a qualitative or quantitative deficiency of hemoglobin, a molecule inside red blood cells (RBCs). As hemoglobin carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, anemia leads to hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in organs. The three main classes of anemia include excess [..]

A pharmaceutical agent that inhibits fibrinolysis (the splitting up or dissolution of blood clot). Coagulation and fibrinolysis are natural biologic functions in blood. By inhibiting fibrinolysis, coagulation is theoretically enhanced. By enhancing coagulation or minimizing the effects of excess fibrinolysis, surgical hemorrhage in the presence of [..]

A surgical tool that uses a beam of ionized argon gas to conduct a high-frequency electric current to stop bleeding of tissues. The beam of argon forms an electrical bridge between the instrument and the tissue; this conducts an electrical current in order to cause superficial electrocoagulation with a penetration depth of 0.5 mm. Autologous Blood [..]

Autologous refers to cells, tissues or even proteins that are either reimplanted or given back to the same individual as they come from. Autologous blood is therefore blood that is collected and transfused to the same individual. Some advantages of autologous blood type will always match, even with a rare blood type or antibody type. The risk of ex [..]

A therapeutic component of blood intended for transfusion (e.g., red cells, granulocytes, platelets, plasma, cryoprecipitate, cyrosupernatant plasma) that can be prepared using the equipment and techniques available in a blood centre. Blood Component Sequestration or apheresis

Any therapeutic product derived from human blood or plasma, and produced by a manufacturing process that pools multiple units (usually more than 12) e.g. human serum albumin, immunoglobulin preparations, and coagulation products (factors VIII and IX, fibrinogen, anti-thrombin III, etc.). Bone and Tissue Donation/Transplantation