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GEORGE H. LANDIS, MD
St Paul, Minn

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1990;116(6):741-742.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—I agree with McCulloch and colleagues' endorsement¹ of the use of autologous blood as a reasonable option for the majority of patients with head and neck tumors, and would like to further emphasize the immunosuppressive considerations.

Evidence exists for both clinical and laboratory studies that perioperative allogeneic blood transfusions are immunosuppressive. This may be clinically advantageous in transplantation patients, but is undesirable in nontransplantation patients because it may increase the risk of infectious disease complications and the risk of tumor recurrence in patients undergoing curative resection for cancer. While some studies may suggest that perioperative blood transfusions adversely affect disease-free survival following curative resection for malignancy, the results are equivocal.

However, there are several studies that show a strong association of allogeneic blood transfusions and resistance to infections. In a series of recent animal studies, it has been shown that allogeneic blood transfusions can increase a . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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