Between October 1987 and July 1989, 544 patients, candidates for cardiovascular surgery, were included in a trial of programmed autologous autotransfusion. Five hundred and twenty four patients underwent one or several (maximum 4) blood donation sessions in the 3 weeks before surgery with no complications. Overall, 57% of patients benefited from homologous blood transfusion, thereby avoiding all risk of contamination. It was in the group of patients able to undergo 3 or 4 preoperative blood donations that we observed the smallest number of homologous transfusions (30%). Programmed autologous transfusion would seem to be a very useful technique for cardiac surgery, allowing a reduction in health care costs without additional patient risk. In order to improve on this method, it may be useful to associate a peroperative technique of blood recuperation in patients in whom the transfusion needs are likely to exceed the possibilities of preoperative blood donation alone.