We agree with Alastair Weir that the storage time of self-donated blood should be discussed with patients considering donating their blood. Self-donated blood has a shorter shelf life than volunteer-donated blood (35 v. 42 days) because of differences in processing methods. We have added the shelf life of self-donated blood to our revised decision aid.1 The short storage time may contribute indirectly to the increased risk of having a transfusion of either type of blood in patients who have donated their own blood, because there may not be adequate time in some patients for regeneration of red blood cells before surgery. With each unit of blood transfused, whether self-donated or volunteer-donated, there is a small risk of human error resulting in a transfusion reaction and a very small risk of bacterial contamination of the blood. Patients who are considering donating their own blood before surgery should weigh the reduced risk of viral transmission against the increased risk of human error and bacterial contamination owing to the greater average number of units transfused.2 The revised decision aid is available on the Ottawa Health Research Institute Web site (www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/OHDEC/decision_aids.asp).
Signature
F. Curry Grant
Associate scientist Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences University of Toronto Toronto, Ont.
Reference
- 1.Grant FC, Laupacis A, O'Connor AM, Rubens F, Robblee J. Evaluation of a decision aid for patients considering autologous blood donation before open-heart surgery. CMAJ 2001;164(8): 1139-44. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 2.Forgie MA, Wells PS, Laupacis A, Fergusson D. Preoperative autologous donation decreases allogeneic transfusion but increases exposure to all red blood cell transfusion. Arch Intern Med 1998; 158:610-6. [DOI] [PubMed]