What Happens to My Donated Blood? (Part 3)

So far, this series has discussed the eligibility requirements for donating blood and how to boost iron levels. But, what happens to your blood after you've taken the time to donate?

The Separation

The first thing that is done to whole blood is that it gets separated into multiple components. Red blood cells, plasma, platelets, and cryoprecipitated antihemophilic factor (AHF) are separated from each other, and then transfused to different patients. Different types of patients include newborns, cancer patients, burn victims, and surgery patients. Every person in need usually needs one portion of the separated blood.

Can Blood Be Stored?

Different parts of blood can last anywhere between five days to more than a year. Red blood cells are generally refrigerated for a maximum of forty-two days, but can be frozen for up to ten years. It is expensive to freeze red blood cells, however, so only a small portion donated ends up frozen.

In order to freeze red blood cells, they need to be put in anticoagulant and preservative solutions. These procedures have the FDA raising safety concerns. When you freeze or irradiate red blood cells, they can become damaged and become more prone to hemolysis.

Freezing Concerns

The FDA has a list of approved anticoagulant and preservative solutions that can be used in the freezing process, but does not condone the use of other solutions that are not approved. Since use of unapproved solutions has not yielded adverse effects in the freezing process, the FDA supports their use as freezing red blood cells lengthens shelf-life considerably.

Irradiation Concerns

Irradiation, the process of exposing an item (in this case, certain blood products) to radiation is sometimes viewed as a necessary procedure used to prevent fatal complications. No anticoagulant or preservative solutions have specifically been approved to use with irradiation, although the FDA does recognize that some of the solutions have appeared to be safe in clinical practice. However, the FDA remains wary of new anticoagulant and preservative solutions and requests supportive data showing that irradiation and the new solutions do not negatively interact.

Do you think the FDA should be stricter on preventing unapproved solutions in blood? Do you think it is only a matter of time before people have adverse reactions from blood transfusions due to unapproved solutions?

Other Parts of this Series:

Part 1: Giving Blood to Save a Life (December 1st)

Part 2: Are You Getting Enough Iron? (December 8th)

Part 3: What Happens to My Donated Blood? (December 15th)

Editors Note: Links will only work if the blog has already been posted.

Resources:

http://www.givelife2.org/aboutblood/faq.asp

http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/ucm153885.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemolysis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryoprecipitate

http://www.givelife2.org/aboutblood/bloodusage.asp