1 in 3 Australians will receive a transfusion of a blood product in their lifetime and with more than 500,000 Australians donating blood, it is one of the most common medical procedure performed in Australia.
Australia has long boasted one of the safest blood supplies in the world, but experts warn our confidence in our blood supply could be leading to an overuse of blood products where it is not always the necessary treatment.
While safe, blood transfusion is not always without risk, from anaphylaxis to contracting blood born diseases like HIV and hepatitis, the risks of blood transfusion still exist in the age of meticulous screening and donor testing.
Sandra Russell, Assistant Director of Patient Blood Management at the National Blood Authority said its time for doctors to look at a blood transfusion as a liquid organ transplant and treat it with the same rarity.
“In some patients the transfusion is their only option, we are asking clinicians to think about other options, for example if a patient is anaemic treating them with iron tablets” Ms. Russell said.
Limited research has been done due to the near impossibility of a clinical trial where you could ethically with hold blood products when a patient required them.
Evidence in hospital links ‘bloodless surgeries’ with better patient outcomes.
“Patients who have less blood products or none at all have better outcomes including better wound healing shorter hospital stays” Ms. Russell said.
While more evidence is needed, blood remains an essential component of our health care system and Ms. Russell agree.
“Blood transfusion are especially life saving for trauma patients and oncology patients but certainly we want patients to be treated with their own blood before looking at donor blood.”
While new research questions the sheer volume of blood transfusions, it does not deny it necessity in treating a number of life threatening conditions such as cancer, immune system diseases and blood disorders.
For regular blood donor Ebony Schmidt, blood donations are her way of giving back to the community and helping others
“I give blood because it’s a way of giving something that has the potential to help everyone… I don’t see any excuse to not give it when it has the potential to save someone’s life.”
Image credit: makelessnoise from Flickr.
