Blood transfusion can be explained as passing of blood or blood components from a healthy person into an ill or injured person.
As a matter of fact, blood is taken from a voluntary donor, stored, and given to a needy person at a later time. With the rapid progress in medicine science, blood donation has become smoother and safe.
Blood can be given safely, as a rule, to a person who has the same blood type as the donor. When the blood types differ, only certain donors and recepients are compatible.This is described in the table below.
| Blood Types | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | A | B | AB | O |
| Receive From | A,O | B,O | A,B,AB,O | O |
| Give To | A,AB | B,AB | AB | A,B,AB,O |
The above table clearly indicates that an individual having blood group AB can receive blood from all the groups and an individual having blood group O can donate blood to all the blood groups. Hence, individuals with blood group AB are termed as Universal Recepients and individuals with blood group O are termed as Universal Donor.
The blood is transfused to the recipient as a whole or sometimes only certain blood components are transfered to the patient.
Whole blood(plasma and cells) is generally given to patients with illness that affect the ability to produce red-blood cells or other cells.
Red-blood cells is given to patients with an inadequate suply of RBC such as person suffering from anemia.
Platelets are often given to leukemia patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Plasma can be individuals suffering from blood clotting effects.This plasma is of same blood group as the patient.
Blood from voluntry donar before being given to a patient has to be certified free from blood transmitted diseases blood group.
A voluntary donor offering blood must be free from genetically transmitted diseases and several other diseases such as Serum Hepatitis.
Hospitals maintain blood banks in which supplies of blood and blood components are available.
Blood StorageIn 1902, Dr Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian-American pathologist, classified blood into four groups or types. These are A, B, AB and O. Blood group A and O are most common, and the group AB is the rarest . These blood groups are determined by heredity.