Blood donated by an individual for his or her exclusive use is
referred to as an autologous or self-donation. The primary
advantage of autologous donations is simple: your own blood is an
exact blood match with no crossmatching issues.
Florida's Blood Centers provides both short-term and long-term
blood storage. Short-term donated blood is kept refrigerated
(maximum of 42 days) while long-term blood is frozen (up to 10
years).
Individuals preparing for elective surgery are primary
candidates for autologous donations. In this case, the individual's
physician must sign a request for the autologous donation
procedure, which may allow the person to donate as frequently as
every two weeks. The donated blood will then be stored in liquid
form and be delivered to the hospital for use during the patient's
surgery.
Long-term frozen storage enables a donor to build up a reserve
of their blood over time. Because of the length of time to thaw and
process frozen blood, it is not suitable for emergency
situations.
Frozen blood storage requires special care and monthly storage
charges, which can be costly for donors. People with reoccurring
ailments such as bleeding ulcers are good candidates for long term
frozen storage.
Recent data indicate that autologous blood accounts for 4.6
percent of all donated blood. Almost half of all autologous
donations are not used by the donor, and many of these units are
discarded because this autologous blood may not be suitable for
transfusion to another patient.
A written order from the patient's physician is required prior
to autologous blood collection.
Contact Us Regarding Autologous Donations
