Quantification of Intraoperative Blood Loss in a Simulated Scenario Using a Novel Device

BACKGROUND:Particularly for protracted bleeding situations, the realization of a relevant blood loss is necessary for early initiation of therapy to avoid hemodynamic instability and shock. The frequently used visual assessment of blood loss is known to be incorrect. An innovative option to address this problem is a mobile application using colorimetric image correction and analysis. METHODS:The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical applicability and accuracy of a novel mobile device application using colorimetric image correction and analysis for blood loss estimation. Scenarios of blood-filled surgical sponges were created to evaluate the accuracy of colorimetric-based blood loss estimation and visual and gravimetric blood loss estimation. RESULTS:Fifty-three anesthesiologists ran through the scenarios. The estimated blood loss correlated the least with the reference blood loss in the visual technique (Rho0.52; p