COMMENTS ON BLOOD DONATION STANDARDS

Blood Donation

Revised guidelines on preoperative autologous blood donation.

advertising." When the problem is so serious and the benefit of banning promotion so clear we are inevitably left to wonder what it is that stops Mrs Bottomley from acting. Natural civil service inertia, a libertarian distaste for advertising bans, and some economic anxiety may have marginal importance, but direct political pressure from the tobacco industry and those who benefit from advertisi...

Blood Donation: Survey Results

A survey of 1735 blood centers (131) and hospitals (1604) in the US showed that blood collection rate per thousand US population of donor age between 18 and 65 years decreased from 85.6 (total number of collections, 13.890) in 2004 compared to 88.0 (total number of collections, 14.259) in 2001 (2.7 % decrease). As blood utilization increases with the advent of more complex therapeutic intervent...

BLood donaTion and coLLecTion

The first documented transfusion of blood in humans occurred in 1667, but it was not until almost 300 years later that transfusion become a therapeutic practicality.1 Landsteiner’s landmark discovery in the early 1900s of blood groups and agglutinating antibodies was the key that unlocked this therapeutic pathway. The development of anticoagulants, blood preservatives, and sterile collection se...

Blood donation and beyond.

World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on 14 June every year.1 On that day, countries all around the world express their appreciation for blood donors, whose generous gift of blood have saved the lives of millions of people they have never met. It is a precious gift indeed as the donated red blood cells help to carry suffi cient oxygen to critical tissues during anaemia or blood loss while the der...