Monitoring and evaluation of the efficacy of whole blood and packed red cells transfusion in dogs

Morikawa M. K., Bochio M. M., Pincelli V. A., Freire R. L. & Pereira P. M. 2010. [Monitoring and evaluation of the efficacy of whole blood and packed red cells transfusion in dogs.] Monitoracao e avaliacao clinica da eficacia da transfusao de sangue total e concentrado de hemacias em caes. Pesquisa Veterinaria Brasileira 30(8): 665-669. Departamento de Clinicas Veterinarias, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Campus Universitario, Cx. Postal 6001, Londrina, PR 86051-990, Brazil. E-mail: pmendes@uel.br Transfusion therapy has a great potential to save lives in small animals practice, and it has been used mainly in the emergency treatment for anemic animals, although this procedure is related to certain risks. A manner to minimize these risks is through keeping close monitoring during the time of transfusion, which furthermore allows an evaluation of recovering of the patient. The aim of the present research was to evaluate the efficacy of whole blood and packed red cells transfusions in anemic dogs. Seventy-seven transfusions in dogs have been done, 52 of whole blood and 25 of packed red cells, measuring (every 15-30 minutes) temperature, cardiac and breathing frequency, mucous tissue color and capillaries filling time throughout the procedure. The outcome shows that both compounds, may cause improvements to every assessed parameters 45 minutes from the start of the transfusion mainly to cardiac frequency, mucous tissue color and capillaries filling time (p<0.05). The success of a transfusion ensures apparent clinical improvement from two hours of the onset of the procedure.