OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of Cell Saver autologous blood transfusion system (CS) on the use of packed red blood cells (pRBC) in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective cross-sectional study in 87 patients undergoing primary elective CABG with miniaturized cardiopulmonary bypass (miniCPB), divided in two groups: 44 without-CS and 43 with-CS. We investigated the necessity of absolute use and the volume of packed red blood cells (pRBC) in each group, as well as cardiovascular risk factors, presurgical variables and intraoperative surgical parameters. All data were collected from medical records and there was no randomization or intervention on group selection. Statistical analysis was performed with Student t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test and χ² test, with a 5% significance level. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of cardiovascular risk factors and pre and intraoperative variables. Evaluating the absolute use of pRBC during surgery, there was a statistically significant difference (P=0.00008) between the groups without-CS (21/44 cases; 47.7%) and with-CS (4/43 cases; 9.3%). There was also a statistically significant difference (P=0.000117) in the volumes of pRBC between the groups without-CS (198.651258.65 ml) and with-CS (35.061125.67 ml). On the other hand, in the early postoperative period (up to 24h) there was no difference regarding either the absolute use or the volumes of pRBC between both studied groups. CONCLUSION: Autologous erythrocyte transfusion with CS use reduces the use of intraoperative homologous pRBC in coronary artery bypass grafting surgeries associated with miniCPB.