WHY SURGEONS ARE USING PATIENTS’ OWN BLOOD

DOCTORS are calling for greater use of patients’ own blood during operations to prevent shortages that could lead to further delays.

Irish Blood Transfusion Service aims to hold seven days blood supply at any one time. As blood only last 35 days and cannot be frozen, to maintain supplies to Ireland’s hospitals, IBTS needs to collect about 3,000 donations a week.

Using a patient’s own blood during surgery — a process known as patient blood management — could save tens of thousands of units of blood, says Dr Andrew Klein, a consultant anaesthetist.

The technique involves taking a patient’s blood, ‘washing’ it, and then giving it back to them, and is advised by the Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in all major surgery.

Currently, only around 50 per cent of hospitals use this technique, according to Dr Klein, and yet ‘it is essential that patients’ own blood is used where possible’.

‘With fewer people donating, we could be hit by blood shortages,’ he warns. ‘This would be a disaster after weeks of elective surgery being cancelled.

‘It would only take a week for donated blood supplies to fall to critical levels.’

Since introducing these techniques at his hospital, there has been a 50 per cent reduction in blood transfusion after routine cardiac surgery, says Dr Klein.

However, its use is ‘patchy’, he explains, because ‘some doctors are reluctant to adopt it and the equipment and drugs that are required can be expensive’.

Earlier this year, experts writing in the journal Anaesthesia and Analgesia demanded the procedure be used during the pandemic to protect blood supplies.

The IBTS is texting donors to ask them to call and make an appointment to attend their upcoming clinics. Currently, healthcare workers are not eligible to give bloos. See giveblood.ie for more information.