What do you think of autologous blood transfusions? I am considering one for an upcoming surgury. Also how long can blood be stored? I am going away for two weeks and not coming back till the 15th of aug. my surgery is on the 18th

any opinions or anything?

What do you think of autologous blood transfusions? I am considering one for an upcoming surgury. Also how long can blood be stored? I am going away for two weeks and not coming back till the 15th of aug. my surgery is on the 18th

Here is some information I found on the AABB website (http://www.aabb.org)

Preoperative Donation

The most common autologous donation is the preoperative donation of blood for possible transfusion back to the donor during elective surgery. For example, a person might give one unit of blood each week for up to six weeks before surgery, because blood can be stored in its liquid form for up to 42 days. Patients can make autologous donations up until 72 hours prior to their surgery. This is to allow the body enough time to replenish its blood supply before the surgical procedure.

A significant amount of iron is removed with each autologous donation. When appropriate, iron supplements are prescribed for patients making autologous donations in order to help increase red blood cell count.

Autologous donation is most often employed in surgery on bones, blood vessels, the urinary tract, and the heart, when the likelihood of transfusion is high. According to the National Blood Data Resource Center, autologous blood accounted for 4.7 percent of all donated blood in 1999. Potential autologous blood donors are medically stable patients who are free of infection. There is no age limitation for autologous donation. Many children and elderly patients have successfully completed autologous donations; however, some patients may not be good candidates. The physician and patient should make the decision regarding autologous donation and transfusion jointly.

The process of donating autologous blood stimulates the bone marrow to produce new blood cells. Given adequate time for recovery, the collected cells may be wholly or partially replaced prior to surgery.

If blood loss during surgery is less than anticipated, transfusion of autologous blood may not be medically necessary. Although the risk of a complication from autologous blood is low, some residual risk persists, making automatic transfusion of autologous units unwise. Forty-four percent of autologous donations are unused by the autologous donor. These units generally are discarded because current standards do not allow transfusion of these units to another patient for safety reasons. In emergency situations, however, these units may be used for another patient provided there is medical approval for the crossover and the unit has been fully screened. Due to the special handling and separate storage requirements, autologous donations cost more to process.

Hope it helps

MY advice would be to contact your hospital doing the procedure or the local blood bank. Maybe even both. Typically from what I recall the blood banks ususally want 5-7 days to process a unit for use, not that it takes that long.

Rj:rolleyes:

From what I have heard this is actually a pretty common thing. It generally is done because of religous beliefs. Certain people do not believe in getting a transfusion from another human. If time allows, you have every right to make this choice. You do what is best for you and don't worry about what others thinki. Hope the surgery goes well.

Actually the people of who you refer to Jehova's Witness (sp) the most common to refuse blood wont even take their own blood back- something to the effect that it is contaminated once it leaves their bodies. Most often self donation is typically for a surgery that may only need one or 2 units if any at all . The most common surgery being a knee or hip replacement.

Rj

From what I have heard this is actually a pretty common thing. It generally is done because of religous beliefs. Certain people do not believe in getting a transfusion from another human. If time allows, you have every right to make this choice. You do what is best for you and don't worry about what others thinki. Hope the surgery goes well.

I am dontating it tommorrow and i just wanted to get some nurses advise since i am not yet a nurse. any advise on the types of types of things to eat/drink before/after donating. I should probably mention I am donating at 10 am

What do you think of autologous blood transfusions? I am considering one for an upcoming surgury. Also how long can blood be stored? I am going away for two weeks and not coming back till the 15th of aug. my surgery is on the 18th

There is less risk of an adverse reaction when you receive your own blood as opposed to an unknown donor. This type of transfusion was very common on my surgical floor. Another benefit -- theoretically there may be unknown/undiscovered viruses in donor blood, ones that are not yet screened for (just as we weren't screening for HIV or HepB a few years ago, leading to many pts acquiring these diseases from transfusions).

Good luck to you. I think it's a great idea. Iron rich foods would help I suppose, but I'm not the expert.

The nurses must think I am such a baby. When they stuck me to take the blood I started to cry, not loud crying but tears leaked out of my eyes. They were all like, "O no, she is crying". I feel like such a baby. You would think after having been in the hospital a bunch of times (I am 17 and this will be my 5th surgery and I have been to the ER twice) I would be used to needles. But no. I get stuck to give blood and I cry.

By the way. The surgery I have had/am having is cranio-facial benign tumor debulking and this time reconstructive surgery.

Surgery went alright. And it is a good thing i donated a unit of blood..i ended up needing 3 during surgery and 1 a few days later.

Glad to hear the surgery went well. Did you say 43 units of blood?

I hope your recovery time goes well also.