I believe everyone is familiar with voluntary blood donation and transfusion, but many people do not understand what autologous transfusion is. Autologous blood transfusion simply means drawing blood from oneself and then reinfusing it back to oneself. Autologous blood transfusion can not only prevent potential diseases, but also address the problem of delayed blood transfusion caused by a shortage of blood resources, enabling patients to receive timely treatment. Below is a brief introduction to the concept, methods, and advantages of autologous blood transfusion, in order to give everyone a comprehensive understanding of autologous blood transfusion.
What is autologous blood transfusion?
Autologous blood transfusion, literally speaking, means giving oneself a blood transfusion. Specifically, it refers to the collection of fresh blood or blood components from the patient's body, storage, processing, etc., and reinfusion into the patient's body during or after surgery. We can understand autologous blood transfusion as' using one's own blood to save one's own life '. A survey shows that in developed countries, the proportion of autologous blood transfusion is 20% -40%. This blood transfusion method effectively solves the problem of tight blood supply and avoids patients' treatment being affected by blood supply restrictions.
What are the methods of autologous blood transfusion?
Autologous blood transfusion can avoid unnecessary waste of blood resources, allowing the blood resources obtained from voluntary blood donation to be used to save more people. At the same time, autologous blood transfusion is very safe and can enhance the patient's hematopoietic function and blood loss tolerance, which is beneficial for relieving blood supply pressure and the contradiction between blood supply and demand. Briefly list the methods of autologous blood transfusion as follows:
1. Storage based autologous blood transfusion: Prior to surgery, blood is extracted from the patient's body for storage, and during the surgery, the stored blood is returned to the patient's body. Storage based autologous blood transfusion includes two collection methods: one is to collect whole blood. It usually takes a few minutes to complete, and the collection time is 1-3 days before surgery. Secondly, component blood is collected. If the surgical blood volume requirement cannot be met, the function of the blood cell separator can be fully utilized to separate the required blood components separately, and the blood collection time usually takes 1-2 hours.
2. Dilution autologous blood transfusion: Before surgery, the patient's blood is diluted by a large amount of infusion, and blood is drawn during this process, and then returned to the patient's body during the surgery.
3. Recycled autologous blood transfusion: Patients may experience bleeding during surgery, and this intraoperative bleeding is collected and professionally processed before being transfused back into the patient's body.
Why do we need autologous blood transfusion?
1. Prevention of disease transmission: Allogeneic blood transfusion carries a certain risk of disease transmission. Although the blood in the hospital comes from unpaid blood donation, and the source of blood is relatively safe, due to the "window period", there are still risks of AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and syphilis transmission. Autotransfusion uses the patient's own blood, and the whole process is very safe, so there is no need to worry about this problem.
2. Relieve the contradiction between blood supply and demand: With the increasing number of surgical patients in China, there is a huge demand for clinical blood. However, the total amount of blood collected cannot meet the clinical blood demand, which inevitably leads to a shortage of blood, especially in provincial capital cities where medical resources are concentrated. Autologous blood transfusion is undoubtedly an effective way to alleviate the contradiction between blood supply and demand.
3. Prevention of other hazards: Allogeneic blood transfusion may cause hemolytic transfusion reactions, fever reactions, allergic reactions, acute lung injury, etc., while autologous blood transfusion does not need to worry about these issues.
Who is not suitable for autologous blood transfusion?
Everyone should know that not every patient is suitable for autologous blood transfusion. During the transfusion process, it is necessary to consider the individual patient's situation and choose whether to undergo autologous blood transfusion. The following groups are not suitable for autologous blood transfusion: patients with liver and kidney dysfunction; Patients with bleeding, anemia, and low blood pressure; Septicemia patients; Use antibiotics during treatment; Blood collection may worsen the condition or induce related diseases; Blood self collection is contaminated by feces, intestinal contents, malignant tumor cells, pathogenic microorganisms, amniotic fluid, etc; Patients with severe lung disease and heart disease; Patients who feel uncomfortable during blood draws.
Will preoperative blood draw affect surgical safety?
Some patients may have concerns about whether preoperative blood draws will affect surgical safety? The answer is negative. Here, we remind patients not to worry too much. For example, collecting 400ml of blood before surgery will restore the patient's body blood volume to normal after approximately 8 minutes, without any impact on the surgery. Preoperative blood draw will not affect tissue oxygen supply or coagulation mechanism. In addition, this procedure can also reduce the viscosity of the patient's blood. If there is bleeding during the surgery, very little of the tangible components in the blood are lost. Nowadays, with the continuous development of medical technology in China, autologous blood transfusion technology has been popularized and promoted in clinical practice, and is widely used in emergency surgery and elective surgery patient groups.
Reminder: Autologous blood transfusion, as a new technology, effectively alleviates the problem of tight clinical blood supply and demand, and can also ensure the safety of patients during the transfusion process, fundamentally reducing the risk of disease transmission. In daily life, we should actively learn about autologous blood transfusion knowledge, increase our medical knowledge reserves, establish blood safety awareness, use blood safely, and save the source of life.