Research Article The Effect of Cell Salvage on Bleeding and Transfusion Needs in Cardiac Surgery Frixos Tachias , 1 Evangelia Samara , 2 Anastasios Petrou , 3 Agathi Karakosta , 2 Stavros Siminelakis , 4 Efstratios Apostolakis , 4 and Petros Tzimas 2 1 Department of Anesthesiology and Postoperative Intensive Care, University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece 2 Department of Anesthesiology and Postoperative Intensive Care, Faculty of Medicine University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece 3 Department of Anesthesiology, CH Sud Seine et Marne, Fontainebleau 77310, France 4 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece Correspondence should be addressed to Evangelia Samara; gelysamara@yahoo.com Received 19 June 2022; Revised 10 August 2022; Accepted 20 August 2022; Published 1 September 2022 Academic Editor: Giuseppe Minervini Copyright © 2022 Frixos Tachias et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction. Cell salvaging is well established in the blood management of cardiac patients, but there remain some concerns about its effects on perioperative bleeding and transfusion variables. is randomized controlled study investigated the potential effects of the centrifuged end-product on bleeding, transfusion rates, and other transfusion-related variables in adult cardiac surgery patients submitted to extracorporeal circulation. Materials and Methods. Patients were randomly chosen to receive (cell-salvage group, 99 patients) or not to receive (control group, 110 patients) the centrifuged product of a cell salvage apparatus. Bleeding and transfusion rates according to the universal definition of perioperative bleeding (UDPB) classification, postoperative hemoglobin, coagulation, and oxygenation indices were recorded and compared between the groups. Results. Both groups had almost identical bleeding and transfusion rates (median value: 2 units of red blood cells (RBC) and no units of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and platelets (PLT) for both groups, p > 0.05). Patients in the cell-salvage group presented slightly higher hemoglobin concentrations (10.6 ± 1.1 vs. 10.1 ± 1.7 g/dL, p < 0.05, respectively) and a tendency towards better oxygenation indices (P a O 2 /F i O 2 : 241 ± 94 vs. 207 ± 84, p  0.013) in the postoperative period albeit with a tendency for prolongation of prothrombin time (INR: 1.31 ± 0.18 vs. 1.26 ± 0.12, p  0.008). Conclusion. Within the study’s constraints, the perioperative use of the cell salvage concentrate does not seem to affect bleeding or transfusion variables, although it could probably ameliorate postoperative oxygenation in adult cardiac surgery patients. A tendency to promote coagulation disturbances was detected. 1. Introduction Cell salvaging is well established in cardiac surgery [1]. It is an important tool that permits the collection and reinfusion of the patient’s own red cells, salvaged from the operating field. is potentially reduces the risks of blood transfusions while maintaining acceptable hemoglobin (Hb) values throughout the intraoperative and early postoperative pe- riods [2, 3]. Apart from its main role in patient blood management [4], there is evidence use of cell salvage is associated with decreased systemic inflammation and a reduced incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation, a common arrhythmia after cardiac surgery [5]. However, issues of safety and efficacy, and the practical advantages, if any, of “permissive anemia” are still being debated [6, 7]. is single-center, randomized, controlled study aimed to investigate whether cell salvaging can alter the peri- operative bleeding and hematologic profiles of adult cardiac surgery patients and, consequently, their transfusion needs. 2. Materials and Methods We prospectively investigated more than 200 adult patients submitted to cardiac surgery at the University Hospital of Hindawi Anesthesiology Research and Practice Volume 2022, Article ID 3993452, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3993452