Survival of Homologous Erythrocytes

In a previous study, the survival time of transfused erythrocytes was determined in dogs before and after total body perfusion with a pump oxygenator. 1 In that study, pooled homologous blood taken from the oxygenator and tagged with chromium survived longer in the perfused, thoracotomized dogs than in the control dogs not operated on. Survival time of the homotransfused tagged red blood cells in the perfused animals, however, was still shorter than the survival time in dogs transfused with their own blood. Further experiments in which a dog's own blood was run through the oxygenator without the addition of homologous blood showed that trauma to the erythrocytes in itself specifically accounted for a decrease of approximately 6 days in survival time. There are 2 possible explanations for the relative prolongation of survival time in the perfused dogs. One is that the perfused animal contributed approximately 25% of his own red