How is blood loss measured during surgery?

Question

As in, how do they know how much blood is lost during surgery?

In: 4

Answer 1

There’s 2 ways to do it: estimated blood loss and quantitative blood loss.

For EBL, it’s an estimate. You know what a certain volume of blood looks like, you know how many laps/sponges were used, you know how much is in the suction canister and on the floor and you just… guesstimate.

For QBL, you weigh the sponge and laps and chux and already know their dry weight. You measure how much is in the suction canister minus any fluids used. There’s lots of different methods used by different facilities.

When comparing the two, some surgeons are more accurate than others. I’m usually within 50cc or so, and I usually overestimate rather than under.