Method of recovering blood from an extracorporeal circuit

In an operating room where a surgical procedure is performed on a patient, which procedure includes circulating the patient's blood outside the body through an extracorporeal circuit including a first hemo-concentrator sub-circuit with associated first pump, a method of recovering a substantial volume of whole blood from said circuit after the arterial cannula and venous cannula have been removed from the patient, comprising;

• (a) fluidly connecting a sterile blood bag to the circuit;
• (b) chasing blood in the circuit into the blood bag;
• (c) disconnecting the first hemo-concentration sub-circuit and fluidly connecting the blood bag with blood to said hemo-concentrator to form a different, second hemo-concentration sub-circuit;
• and
• (d) when the hematocrit concentration of the blood in the bag reaches a desired value, closing and removing the bag from the second hemo-concentration circuit.

In an operating room where a surgical procedure is performed on a patient, which procedure includes circulating the patient's blood outside the body through an extracorporeal circuit including a hemo-concentrator sub-circuit, a method of recovering a substantial volume of whole blood from the extracorporeal circuit after said circuit has been disconnected from the patient, comprising:

• (a) flowing at least most of the blood remaining in the disconnected circuit, into a blood reservoir;
• (b) disconnecting said hemo-concentration sub-circuit and fluidly connecting the blood reservoir with blood therein to said hemo-concentrator to form a different hemo-concentration sub-circuit;
• (c) circulating the blood between the blood reservoir and the hemo-concentrator in said different circuit to increase the hematocrit concentration;
• and
• (d) when the hematocrit concentration of the blood in the reservoir reaches a desired value, storing the concentrated blood for later transfusion to said patient.