A follow-up study of the relation between methods of selecting medical students and performance after admission was investigated. The subjects were 318 students who had entered our medical school from 1987 through 1989. Two hundred fiftynine students had passed open entrance examinations and 59 students had passed special examinations for those who had been recommended by their high school principals. We found that students who had earned a degree other than a medical degree had the best performance, as measured by academic records, promotion, and results of the national examination for medical practitioners. They were followed in descending order by students who had been admitted upon recommendations of high school principals, students who had passed open entrance examinations immediately after graduation from high school, students who had prepared for entrance examinations for 1 or 2 years after high school, and students who had prepared for 3 years or more.

The relation between student selection methods, including results of entrance examinations, and progress after admission was analyzed by means of path analysis and discriminant analysis in 318 sudents. Among students who had been admitted on the basis of an open entrance examination, those with rank in high school record from high school and female students performed better in medical school, whereas students who had prepared for the entrance examination after graduation from high school performed worse. On the other hand, students who had rank in high school record from high shool, who had higher interview evaluations, or who had earned a degree other than a medical degree were more likely to pass the national examination for medical practitioners after a minimum of 6 years of study. Among students who had been admitted on the recommendations of high shool principals, those with better grades during high school records and higher interview evaluations had a higher success rate on the national examination for medical practitioners.

The relation between results of interview evaluation and progress after admission, especially the need to repeat years of school, dropping out, and results of the national examination for medical practitioners, was investigated in 318 students. Among students who had been admitted on the basis of open entrance examination, those who had lower interview evaluations needed to repeat a year of school at least three times more often than did other students. Among students who had been amitted on the basis of recommendations of high school principals, no such difference was observed, probably owing to selection bias. On the other hand, students who repeated a year of school had a significantly higher failure rate on the national examination for madical practitioners than did other students.

The subjects consisted of cases of unruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm operated upon between 1989 and 1992 with or without blood transfusion. The blood transfusion group contained 13 patients and the non-transfusion group consisted 17 patients. Non-transfusion cases accounted for 57% and there was no operative death in this group. In 6 patients a Cell saver was used, and it was effective in 3 patients (20%) for non-transfusion. There were significant differences in preoperative hemoglobin, preoperative hematocrit, maximum diameter of aneurysm and bleeding volume in the blood transfusion group and non-transfusion group (p<0.05). In non-transfusion operations the Cell saver appears advantageous.