Blood Transfusion and Donation: What You Receive, and Using Your Own Blood

Transfusions

Every year, millions of people in the United States receive life-saving blood transfusions. A transfusion gives you whole blood or parts of it:

• Red blood cells, which carry oxygen to and from tissues and organs;
• Platelets, which form clots to control bleeding;
• Plasma, the liquid part of blood, which helps it clot.

You may need one after severe burns, or for liver failure or a severe infection. Most transfusions go very smoothly.

Keeping blood safe

Some infections, such as HIV, can survive in blood and pass to the person who receives it. So blood banks carefully screen donated blood, and the risk of catching a virus from a transfusion is low.

Using your own blood

During surgery you may need a transfusion because of blood loss. If your surgery is planned months ahead, your doctor may ask whether you'd like to use your own blood instead of donated blood. If so, you will have blood drawn one or more times before the operation, and a blood bank will store it for you.

Sources

Based on "Blood Transfusion and Donation," MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine, with its summary from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health; a work of the United States government in the public domain.