Pre-Op Blood Donation

Sometimes being an anatomy student isn't great :P Today we were talking about blood and my prof stated that people undergoing surgery should donate their own blood pre-op in case they need a transfusion. I asked for clarification of this after class and she feels that this is the case for pretty much any surgery.

Have any of you donated blood before plastics? This definitely isn't something that my surgeon mentioned, so I'll ask him about it when I see him in May.

I didn't do it before my plastics surgery and I absolutely did not need it, but I did do it about 13 years ago before a hysterectomy. I had a wild hair and donated before my surgery. Don't know why I felt the need to do it, I just did. It turned out that I didn't need it DURING the surgery itself, but I did end up loosing a lot of blood. So a day later they used the blood so I was able to be released at the 3 day mark instead of having to stay an extra 2 days or getting donated blood. So it turned out to be very useful. If I hadn't done it my recovery would have been much tougher and my hospital stay longer (or I would have had to use donated blood).

It wasn't a really big deal. I did a self donation within something like 10 days of my surgery. There is a very specific window of time. You can't donate too close to your surgery because something like your platelet level will be too low, but you can't donate too far out because the blood will be too old.

Like I said, I did not do this for my plastics surgery. Supposedly there is not a lot of blood loss during these surgeries and there is really no need. And, I really don't know why I felt such a need to do it before the hysterectomy, but I did. And, it worked out.

Thanks!

My daughter is a transfusion medicine specialist and she does NOT recommend autologous blood donation before surgery. Having a transfusion is like getting an organ donation, and should be avoided if possible. If you lose so much blood that you need a transfusion, you will be getting more than just the one unit you donated. Issues can arise from blood transfusions, so be careful.

I work in a hospital blood bank, and truthfully unless you have some other underlining immuno condition, blood disorder issues or you are an O neg (we are forever short for O Neg) I would just go with the allogeneic blood, which is from a donor. If your blood isn't used, it is tossed, most hospitals don't have the equipment or funds to pick up on the testing to make if ready for the public. I hate to see blood wasted :( Especially if it is O-neg. The cost to you and your insurance company will be much less, (if they cover autologous blood at all).

Thanks!

Sadly, I am O+. Sniff. (And I lived in mad cow land, so I always get conflicting information about whether I can donate or not. I did as often as I could pre-mad cow land though.)

I called my daughter about this today, so she could explain better than I did last night on why you should not do an autologous donation. Her explanation is as follows:

If your hematocrit before surgery is 12 (about average), and you give one unit of blood, your hematocrit will be reduced to 11 right before your surgery. If you already have a low hemoglobin count, then your hematocrit will be even lower. When they perform your surgery and your hematocrit is good (12 or above) then you can lose several units before you would even need a transfusion. They probably wouldn't even give you any blood unless your hemo goes to below 8-9. If you lose enough to get to that blood count then they will probably be giving you your own blood, plus someone elses anyway.

When you are having surgery, and your blood count is good beforehand, why would you give blood to lower your hematocrit, just to give you blood to raise it up where it should have been in the first place.

I hope all of this makes sense to you. I'm not as good at explaining it as she is.

Your anatomy teacher should talk to a blood bank or transfusion specialist to find out more about autologous donation before recommending it all of his students.

Thanks, this actually does make a bit of sense. I'll talk to my prof about it more the next time I see her! I'll ask my surgeon too, since I'm curious about what he thinks.

Good information. Thanks for sharing!!

You're so welcome.I find it really fascinating to talk to my daughter about blood and blood products.