Non-invasive surgery options?

Can anyone tell me if they perform dialysis or blood filtration treatments at hospitals here in the States? You know, the process where they basically clean the blood and then pump it right back into you. I'm also wondering about the potential risks involved with something like that.
The reason I'm asking is because I’m looking into surgery to have some plates removed from my leg, and I was wondering if this kind of blood filtration would be a viable option during the procedure. I imagine a major place like Mayo Clinic might be the best bet for something like this.
thanks

I believe the term for that is autotransfusion

It’s possible, sure, but it drives up the overhead—so I don't know if they actually bother, depending on the procedure. Are you some kind of Jehovah's Witness or just terrified of catching HIV or hepatitis? As far as I know, no surgeon is going to tolerate that risk. If a transfusion becomes necessary, they use donor blood that's already been screened—the odds of getting infected are basically one in a million.
Though, honestly, I doubt a surgery like that would even require a transfusion anyway. It's just shifting muscle to pull out pins and plates.

I honestly don't see what a surgeon should have to tolerate here. If it isn't an emergency, the patient can choose to go that route and shoulder the costs of a non-standard procedure themselves. However, when it comes to the risk of infection, we really ought to be facilitating the safest possible path.

The odds of contracting hepatitis or HIV aren't exactly one in a million; they're significantly higher than that. I suspect the real issue arises during those early stages of infection, where the virus is already circulating in the bloodstream before antibodies can even be detected. It makes me wonder why we don't just hold off on labeling blood as safe until a second test is performed on the donor after the incubation period has passed.

Justin Fox said:I don't see what a surgeon has to tolerate here—if it isn't an emergency, the patient can choose to take the risk and foot the bill for non-standard care. But when it comes to infection risks, they really ought to make it possible.

The odds of catching hepatitis or HIV aren't exactly one in a million—they're significantly higher. I think the issue lies in those early stages where you can't detect antibodies even though the virus is already circulating in the blood. Why isn't blood held back and only cleared as safe after a second donor test, once the incubation period has passed?

Because you can't always pull that off. It depends on the surgery—sometimes during abdominal procedures, blood gets contaminated with fecal matter, and there's no way to purify it. With this specific operation, it's different—assuming there's no osteomyelitis and everything stays "clean." Sometimes a patient loses blood too fast to even attempt purification... There's more to it, but you get my point.

As for the other thing—yeah, they do that, so the chances are actually kept to a minimum. That "window period" with Hepatitis B is tricky because there are no antibodies in the blood to signal an infection—absolutely nothing—which is exactly why they run follow-up HBV tests. Don't grill me too hard on the details, though; I'm no expert in transfusion medicine 🙂 , and I can't claim to know everything.
Anyway, I know everything gets screened multiple times and the risks are minimized.

The Alenteza extraction is actually a pretty minor procedure where you barely lose any blood at all. The old-school way involves getting to the fascia and muscles, but instead of cutting through them, we just gently separate them. Once that's done, we use an Allen key to pull out the screws and then carefully peel the plates away from the bone using a dissector.
In this process, you might lose maybe 25 red blood cells and a handful of white blood cells, and the platelets basically scatter everywhere 😬
All jokes aside, you don't even need an IV drip—unless we're just using it for access—and we usually perform it under spinal anesthesia. Most patients are back home within 24 hours. There really shouldn't be any actual bleeding; the only thing you'll see is some minor oozing around the screw sites or the skin incision, but honestly, there isn't enough blood there to even soak through two gauze pads...

Just to give you some context on how we handle things here in the States, autotransfusion is pretty much standard practice during open-heart surgeries or when they're working on those major blood vessels. That said, we almost always supplement the process with donor units of red cells and platelets. It’s mostly because even with the best tech, the extracorporeal circulation machine tends to beat up and destroy a fair amount of blood cells along the way, so you've gotta make up for that loss.

First you use an Allen key... then you go at it with a hammer... Are we actually on a DIY forum or am I hanging out in a mechanic's shop? 🤣

Just kidding, though...

Man, if you only knew which mechanics I'm talking about 😁 😁 😁
...

Casey Palmer5 said:Man, if you only knew which kind of mechanics we're talking about... 😁 😁 😁

Psh, it’s not just mechanics—you’d need stone masons, carpenters, the whole crew, 😍

Seriously, if you only knew how smoothly I put together this teak table. It was heavy, tough as nails, and showed up in a box in a million pieces—but I just rolled up my sleeves, grabbed my Allen wrench (my good one, not that cheap junk they give you at the store 😈), and just winged it until everything clicked into place 🙂

I’ve always said that trauma surgeons make the best handymen, and vascular surgeons? They're basically your plumbers 😬
As for those plastic makers, they're more like high-end leatherworkers 😂 😂 😂

Man, I’m still out here trying to deal with this ingrown toenail...

Taylor Swift said:And here I am, still trying to deal with this ingrown toenail...

Wait, how? 😍