Background: The use of cell salvage and autologous blood transfusion is an important and widespread method of blood conservation during surgeries with expected high blood loss. The continuous autotransfusion device CATSmart^® (Fresenius Kabi, Germany) contains two new washing programs on the device called Flex wash 3 and Flex wash 5. To the best of our knowledge, there are no published clinical data regarding the performance of the two new washing programs.

Methods: In total, 69 patients undergoing cardiac or orthopedic surgery were included in this randomized, controlled, bicentric trial to validate the red cell separation process and washout quality of Flex wash 3 compared to Flex wash 5. After washing, the primary quality target was to determine hematocrit value, recovery rate, albumin, and total protein elimination rate in the packed red cells (PRCs). The secondary objective was to assess the elimination of heparin by measuring the factor anti-Xa activity by a 1- and 2-stage assay in PRC after washing.

Results: In the whole cohort of patients, hematocrit was 16.00% [9.15%; 21.30%] (median [Q1; Q3]) in the wound blood and 69.90% [51.10%; 80.90%] in the PRC resulting in a recovery rate of 63.92% [47.06%; 88.13%]. The albumin elimination rate was 98.77% [97.94%; 99.27%], and the total protein elimination rate was 98.85% [97.76%; 99.42%]. The heparin elimination rate was 99.95% [99.90%; 99.97%] in the 1-stage assay and 99.70% [99.41%; 99.87%] in the 2-stage assay. There was no difference between Flex wash 3 and Flex wash 5 washing procedure regarding the recovery rate 63.75% [46.64%; 78.65%] versus 67.89% [47.20%; 92.69%] (p = 0.85), albumin elimination rate 98.74% [97.67%; 99.27%] versus 98.78% [98.10%; 99.28%] (p = 0.97), protein elimination rate 98.79% [97.94%; 99.47%] versus 98.92% [97.58%; 99.42%] (p = 0.88), and anti-Xa elimination rate in the 1-stage assay 99.94% [99.79%; 99.97%] versus 99.95% [99.92%; 99.97%] (p = 0.24) and in 2-stage assay 99.66% [99.20%; 99.86%] versus 99.77% [99.47%; 99.90%] (p = 0.23).

Conclusions: The two new washing procedures, Flex wash 3 and Flex wash 5, enable sufficient and comparable red cell separation and washout quality of albumin, total protein, as well as heparin.