Hem dilution: donating your own blood during surgery. Immediately before surgery, some of your blood is taken and replace with IV fluids. After surgery, your blood is filtered and returned to you. This process dilutes your own blood so you lose less concentrated blood during surgery. The disadvantage of this process is that only a limited amount of blood can be removed, and certain medical conditions may prevent the use of this technique.
Apheresis: donating your own platelets and plasma. Before surgery, your platelets and plasma, which help stop bleeding, and withdrawn, filtered and returned to you when you need it later. This process may eliminate the need for the donor platelets and plasma, especially in high blood-loss procedures. The disadvantage of this process is that some medical
…show more content…
A single unit of blood can take between 30 minutes and four hours to be given.
There are also risks and complications in a blood transfusion. Most of the blood transfusion goes very smoothly, however, problems and reactions may occur. The risk of blood transfusion includes transfusion reaction (immune-related reactions), nonimmune reactions, and infections.
Immune-related reactions occur when your immune systems attacks components of the blood being transfused or when the blood cause an allergic reactions. Most transfusion reactions occur because of errors made in matching the recipient’s blood to the blood transfused. Even receiving the correct blood type sometimes results in a transfusion reaction. Most mild reactions are life-threatening when treated quickly.
Doctors or nurses will stop the blood transfusion if they think you are having reaction. They will determine how mild or severe the reaction is, what treatment is needed and is it safe to restart the