Acceptable blood loss

[Slevin]

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I was wondering if someone could define what exactly acceptable blood loss during a surgical procedure is and how to calculate it. I couldn't find a good definition within the books I have

Thanks!

 

[Winged Scapula]

I was wondering if someone could define what exactly acceptable blood loss during a surgical procedure is and how to calculate it. I couldn't find a good definition within the books I have

Thanks!

Acceptable depends on what you're doing and who you're doing it to.

It might be "acceptable" for example to lose a couple of units while doing a large belly/vascular/ortho case in a patient who is young and healthy and can tolerate it.

It would be "unacceptable" in the patient for whom you are doing a case in which you typically don't lose a lot of blood and in a patient with a significant cardiac history, or whom was already hypotensive/unstable/anemic, etc.

You will learn what is typical blood loss - there is no standard for all cases, all patients, even all situations (ie, I will typically lose less than 10 cc for mastectomies but in a patient with a well vascularized, stuck down tumor, it might be more than usual).